What is visual design?

Visual design is the combination of visual elements like lines, colors, type fonts, and white space and how they all impact the appearance, usability, and overall presence of a website or other visual creation. Successful visual design relies on a strong, unique, artful visual concept. Think of all the great music LP covers over the years that have succeeded because of a strong, dominant visual design. Great visual design, or graphic design, concepts should enhance or even become the overall message, not detract from it. Without great visual design, many banner ads, TV commercials, show posters, and other visual materials would be less striking. The magic of visual design is that it hooks people’s attention and encourages them to examine other aspects of the piece more closely.

Why is it important to learn about visual design?

It's important to learn about visual design and graphic design because of the skills you can gain from these programs, such as visual elements for websites, videos, advertisements, business reports, and other media. As the world grows more digital every day, the visual design we see is most often represented in online visual materials. Learning how to use visual design software can help you realize the work that goes into creating an art piece, an animated video, or a short film with strong visuals. It's a learned skill that can pay dividends down the road should you decide to turn visual design into a career.

What are some careers that use visual design?

Some careers that use visual design include graphic designer, creative director, and art director at marketing agencies. Another career is a visual stylist for retail merchandising companies. Someone with a visual design background could be the director of user experience for a web-based technology company as well. These are the people who have gotten educated in art, design, visual aesthetics, software UI/UX, and more and have worked in the field to bring these skills to projects for companies and organizations.

How can taking online courses help me learn visual design?

Taking online courses is a great step forward for you to better understand the foundation and basics of visual design. If you're currently working in a technology area, you may already have a head start on understanding graphic design and visual design software programs. But if you're ready to broaden your scope of visual design, and dig deeper into the software tools and the artistic sensibilities in visual design work, online courses can help further your knowledge base. Try courses that challenge your accepted notions of visual identity and graphic design. You may find the innovation you see in these new worlds of visual design and graphic design is very appealing to you as you move through your career.

What are the benefits of taking an online Visual Design course?

Online Visual Design courses offer a convenient and flexible way to enhance your knowledge or learn new Visual Design skills. Choose from a wide range of Visual Design courses offered by top universities and industry leaders tailored to various skill levels.

What Visual Design courses are best for training and upskilling employees or the workforce?

When looking to enhance your workforce's skills in Visual Design, it's crucial to select a course that aligns with their current abilities and learning objectives. Our Skills Dashboard is an invaluable tool for identifying skill gaps and choosing the most appropriate course for effective upskilling. For a comprehensive understanding of how our courses can benefit your employees, explore the enterprise solutions we offer. Discover more about our tailored programs at Coursera for Business here .

Top Visual Design Courses - Learn Visual Design Online

Explore the Visual Design Course Catalog

University of North Texas
Bachelor of Science in General Business
Skills you'll gain: Operations Management, Mediation, Compensation and Benefits, Integrated Marketing Communications, Organizational Change, Event Management, Grammar, Sales Process, Data Mining, Data Visualization, Design Thinking, Global Marketing, Probability & Statistics, Cultural Diversity, Digital Media Strategy, Organizational Leadership, Political Sciences, Social Justice, Music History, Sociology
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
University of London
Graduate Diploma in Computer Science
Skills you'll gain: Virtual Reality, Human Computer Interaction, Game Design, Full-Stack Web Development, React Native, Agile Software Development, Animations, Data Ethics, Git (Version Control System), Event-Driven Programming, Network Security, Web Applications, Data Science, Natural Language Processing, Unsupervised Learning, Combinatorics, Database Design, Web Development, Generative AI, Usability Testing
Credit offered
Graduate Certificate · 6 - 12 Months
University of London
Bachelor of Science in Marketing
Skills you'll gain: Process Design, Global Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Statistical Analysis, Organizational Change, Integrated Marketing Communications, Advertising, Innovation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Supply Chain Management, Training and Development, Virtual Teams, Diversity and Inclusion, Databases, Cost Accounting, International Finance, Research, Branding, Economic Development, Cultural Diversity
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Financial Management Graduate Certificate
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Management Accounting, Fund Accounting, Operations Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Statement Analysis, Marketing, Risk Management, Machine Learning Algorithms, Business Strategy, Financial Auditing, Descriptive Statistics, Variance Analysis, Process Improvement, Marketing Analytics, Generative AI, Financial Market, Strategic Decision-Making, Corporate Tax, Global Marketing
Credit offered
Graduate Certificate · 6 - 12 Months
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Value Chain Management Graduate Certificate
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Management Accounting, Fund Accounting, Operations Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Statement Analysis, Marketing, Risk Management, Machine Learning Algorithms, Business Strategy, Financial Auditing, Descriptive Statistics, Variance Analysis, Process Improvement, Marketing Analytics, Generative AI, Financial Market, Strategic Decision-Making, Corporate Tax, Global Marketing
Credit offered
Graduate Certificate · 6 - 12 Months
Status: New
Coursera Instructor Network
Salesforce CLM & CPQ: Streamlining Contract Operations
Skills you'll gain: Salesforce, Contract Management, Business Reporting, Systems Integration, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software, Sales Management, Workflow Management, Process Optimization, Business Process Automation, Configuration Management, Automation, Compliance Management, Scalability
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
University of Colorado Boulder
Master of Engineering in Engineering Management
Skills you'll gain: User Story, Systems Engineering, Real-Time Operating Systems, New Product Development, Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Failure Analysis, Delegation Skills, Object Oriented Design, Sampling (Statistics), Supplier Management, Sustainability Reporting, Accountability, Data Ethics, Data Mining, Statistical Modeling, Unsupervised Learning, Proposal Writing, Generative AI, Process Capability, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Initiatives
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
University of Michigan
Master of Applied Data Science
Skills you'll gain: Data Ethics, Data Storytelling, Database Design, Reinforcement Learning, Supervised Learning, Experimentation, Interactive Data Visualization, PySpark, Generative AI, Pandas (Python Package), Network Analysis, Deep Learning, Cloud Services, Linear Algebra, Natural Language Processing, JSON, Data Mining, Applied Machine Learning, Qualitative Research, Statistical Visualization
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research
Post Graduate Diploma in Management Online
Skills you'll gain: Mergers & Acquisitions, Search Engine Marketing, Working Capital, Design Thinking, Operations Management, Business Valuation, Competitive Analysis, Manufacturing Operations, Business Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Digital Transformation, Persuasive Communication, Consumer Behaviour, Organizational Leadership, Integrated Marketing Communications, Team Management, Organizational Change, Change Management, Financial Statement Analysis, Portfolio Management
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
University of London
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Skills you'll gain: Process Design, Global Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Statistical Analysis, Organizational Change, Integrated Marketing Communications, Advertising, Innovation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Supply Chain Management, Training and Development, Virtual Teams, Diversity and Inclusion, Databases, Cost Accounting, International Finance, Research, Branding, Economic Development, Cultural Diversity
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Certificado en Bases de la Salud Pública
Skills you'll gain: Epidemiology, Public Health and Disease Prevention, Health Disparities, Biostatistics, Health Policy, Health Systems, Healthcare Ethics, Descriptive Statistics, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Health Technology, Public Health, Infectious Diseases, Health Care, Scientific Methods, Health Equity, Community Health, Preventative Care, Statistics, Research Design, Research Methodologies
Credit offered
Mastertrack · 6 - 12 Months
University of London
Graduate Certificate in Computer Science
Skills you'll gain: Virtual Reality, Human Computer Interaction, Game Design, Full-Stack Web Development, React Native, Agile Software Development, Animations, Data Ethics, Git (Version Control System), Event-Driven Programming, Network Security, Web Applications, Data Science, Natural Language Processing, Unsupervised Learning, Combinatorics, Database Design, Web Development, Generative AI, Usability Testing
Credit offered
Graduate Certificate · 6 - 12 Months