Graduate Diploma in Digital Product Design
Transform your career with in-demand digital product design capabilities and lead the delivery of successful digital products. Gain strategic insight into design problems, formulate effective solutions, and drive key product decisions with stakeholders.
Please use plan code GD215O in the application system for this program.
Applications close
27 Jun 2022
- Future intakes
- Jul 2022|Oct 2022
- Number of courses
- 8
- Duration
- 24 months (12 months accelerated)
Co-created with



Program Overview
Why study Digital Product Design?
Our Graduate Diploma in Digital Product Design will equip you with the tools, skills, methods, and processes to become a versatile and effective digital product designer.
What better time to advance your career by developing best practice human-centred design principles, as well as the necessary ethical, business, and technical expertise in digital product design. By deep-diving into every stage of the design process including research, design, and delivery, you’ll learn how to craft and deliver exceptional solutions for new and in-market products.
So why study a Graduate Diploma of Digital Product Design with us?
- Learn both theory and practical applications of design: This program will teach you both the theoretical and practical foundations you need to succeed in Digital Product Design. You’ll have the opportunity to learn new valuable skills, underpinning your ability to strategically create, design, and implement design solutions that’ll drive business value.
- Choose your design specialty: The offered option courses from this program will allow you to tailor your degree with choices from a variety of relevant product and design disciplines.
- Become a future design leader: Develop your team leadership skills to drive results and accelerate digital disruptions. Learn how to think like a designer and craft exceptional solutions that don’t only meet the needs of the user but drive business value.
- Multiple pathways: You have a credit pathway into this program if you’ve successfully completed one of RMIT Online’s following programs:
- Graduate Certificate in User Experience Design
- Graduate Certificate in Service Design
- Graduate Certificate in Digital Product Design
- Graduate Certificate of Product Management
This program is also featured as a recognised course at the Design Institute of Australia.
Program outcomes
- Apply strategic digital product design knowledge and skills, technologies, user research to frame organisational level problems and opportunities, engage stakeholders, and propose solutions.
- Communicate design outputs and ideas to diverse stakeholders using appropriate design tools, engaging presentation skills and formats.
- Demonstrate cultural, environmental, and social awareness by maintaining an ethical and reflective design practice and mindset.
- Strategically, operationally, and ethically lead the research and design of digital products which align with the needs of complex stakeholder groups.
- Lead the research, design and delivery of specialised digital products and solutions that integrate business, community, and market-focused thinking within complex design contexts.
Digital Product Design Strategy and Contexts
This course introduces you to digital products. You will gain an understanding of how they are conceived and designed for local and international markets. Using design thinking frameworks, you will experience the process of new product development (NPD), problem definition, opportunity scoping, and ethical design research. You will be introduced to the various team and stakeholder roles and capabilities that are required to successfully bring new digital products to market, including the importance of persuasive storytelling and a sound business case.
Design Practice and Leadership
In this course, you will explore the fundamentals of leadership within a design context. You will determine your leadership capabilities as a designer, not only as an individual, but as a crucial part of a team, an organisation, and society.
This is the designated Work Integrated Learning (WIL) course for the Graduate Certificate of Digital Product Design. In the role of course facilitator, industry partners will support and review your work, as well as provide industry relevant case studies and real-world scenarios. This ensures ongoing industry best-practice in both accessing and gaining feedback from the course content. By developing a deeper understanding of the ways in which design shapes the world, you will be aware of the prevailing conversations, trends and future directions of the roles and impact of design on the economy, society, culture and the planet.
You will examine how ethics, skills of team members and culture all contribute to and constrain current and emerging design practice. You will also critically define your viewpoints, rationales and biases as you grow as a design leader.
Digital Product Design Process and Methods
In this course, you will design a new digital product using an existing client’s brief. Using industry standard tools and ethical best practice, you will gain hands-on experience of framing a client’s problem.
You will then apply design research to explore the client’s brief and the possibilities for the digital product and move into conceptualising, prototyping and designing a product solution.
You will gain a working understanding of digital product lifecycles and explore how products grow and change through industry and user feedback.
By understanding and enacting the roles of various team members, you will have a broad understanding of the responsibilities and expertise required to build a successful digital product, including different interface modalities, user contexts, business constraints, accessibility considerations, and market forces.
User Experience Research
In this course, you will be introduced to the role research plays within the user experience domain. You will learn how to evaluate and implement research tools and activities to effectively articulate and interpret the ‘problem space’ and shape findings and insights for your client. You will develop an understanding of how research is used in competitor analysis, user interviews, observations, surveys, testing, and analytics in order to deliver a suitable user experience.
Project scoping protocols (including privacy, ethics, and data management) are reviewed to look at how to support your organisation to deliver evaluative and generative modes of research to enhance the user experience.
Product and Business Strategy
This course covers the fundamentals of product and business strategy, and how this applies to the development of products that meet customer and market needs. You will analyse the success factors for different product types and commercial and risk impacts and learn how to develop and deliver a compelling business case to stakeholders. You will apply your new skills projects based on real-world examples, including problem statements, product metrics, commercial models and market analysis.
Option courses
Once you've completed the five core program courses, you will complete THREE of the following courses to make up the remaining courses in your Graduate Diploma:
- Product Design and Customer Experience
- Product Development and Operations
- Future Skills: Digital Leadership and Digital Marketing Strategy
- Future Skills: Digital Leadership and Digital Delivery with Agile
- Service Design in Practice
- Design Strategy Practice and Principles
- Service Design Research
- Service Futures
- Programming Fundamentals
- Data and Privacy in the Digital Age
- User Experience Practice and Principles
- User Experience Design & Prototyping
- Future Skills: User Interface Design and Business Analyst Fundamentals
- Future Skills: User Interface Design and Product Management Fundamentals
For further detail on the course overview and learning outcomes for each of these courses, please refer to the Program brochure.
Learn with industry experts
Matt Kurowski is a senior strategic service designer across finance, fintech, and the public sector. He has expertise in strategic partnerships, organisation design, new digital product and omnichannel service development. Currently, Matt contributes to RMIT and RMIT Online’s postgraduate courses in sociotechnical business design such as service design, user experience
Our student success team are here to help you with 1:1 coaching, tips on how to successfully study online, and any questions or concerns you may have.
Why choose RMIT Online
Get a world-class education and transform your career.
Real world skills
Develop skills that have been validated by industry, while getting credentialed by a world-leading university.
Industry connected
You'll gain knowledge and practical skills from renowned industry partners who are at the forefront of their field.
Flexible delivery
Advance your career while you study. RMIT Online courses let you balance work, study and life commitments.
Supported community
Be guided by a network of industry experts and peers, and supported by our dedicated success team.
Entry requirements
An Australian Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent overseas qualification).
If you don’t have these academic qualifications, you may be eligible for entrance into this program if you have a minimum of five years’ professional experience in innovation and start-ups, creative practice, digital design studios, human resources, business analysis, management consultancy, process analysis or other similar roles. To have your professional experience considered, you must include in your application a CV and a statement that details your experience.
English Language
You must meet the University's minimum English language requirements to be eligible for a place in this program.
If you are a local student, refer to the English requirements for postgraduate coursework programs.
If you are an international student, refer to the English requirements and equivalency information. The program requires a minimum overall score of 6.5 with no band less than 6.0 in IELTS (Academic).
Australian Student Visas
RMIT’s Online Graduate Diploma in Digital Product Design does not meet Australian student visa requirements. For an Australian student visa, you must have an on-campus place in a program of study. For more details on RMIT’s on-campus programs visit https://rmit.edu.au.
Pathways
You may be eligible for entrance into this program if you have successfully graduated from one of the following Graduate Certificates:
Price
3480per course^
Program total: 27840 (all 8 courses)*^FEE-HELP and other support may be available
* Plus a capped Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) based on your credit point enrolment load.
^ Fees typically increase each year and may change without notice.
Total fees are estimates and should only be used as a guide.
Download a brochure
For a closer look at what you'll do in this program and where it can take you, fill out this form to get your free course guide