WHAT ARE LUXURY MATERIALS IN DIGITAL DESIGN?

Image created with AI tool Sora

Imagine an ice-cold, bubbly dry drink in your mouth. A warm teak deck under your bare feet. A tightly knit cashmere sweater in a deep, rich blue. We love it when the things around us feel good.

The Power of Materials

Most of us don’t chase luxury, but we do have favorite jeans, cozy corners at home, or a go-to warm drink that puts us at ease. These are material experiences that make life feel just a little better. And that’s exactly what many companies aim to spark in their customers.

Some go all in – especially luxury brands. They design every touchpoint to evoke sensory pleasure. And they understand that materials are never just materials. They’re stories, signals, and emotional triggers. The softness of wool, the gloss of leather, the weight of glass – all this speaks quality before you even see the price.

But What About Digital?

What happens when there’s nothing to touch?

In digital products, we’re working with one cold, flat surface – the screen. It glows, it scrolls, it swipes. Every experience sits behind the same pane of glass. So how do you make a digital product feel premium? Or even luxurious?

There are plenty of digital services that aim to be invisible – banking apps, insurance platforms, government sites. These tools just need to get you from A to B with minimal friction. No one wants to hang out on the taxman’s website. And that’s fine.

But what about the rest? Consumer brands, NGOs, e-commerce platforms, B2B services all need to stand out, earn trust, be remembered, and be wanted.

What Makes a Digital Brand Feel Premium?

In physical products, it’s simple: the nicer the material, the rarer the item, the higher the perceived value. But digital is trickier.

You can’t use leather or brass, but you can design visual and interactive cues that suggest quality. It starts with the basics: a clear structure, smooth navigation, intuitive UX copy. From there, premium experiences often lean on expressive photography, thoughtful layout, well-crafted type, and tone-of-voice.

Done right, even subtle interaction details like hover effects, micro-animations, and scroll dynamics can evoke finesse and trust. Just like that smooth feel of a cashmere sweater, the feel of a UI can say a lot about what’s behind it.

Sound is another underused layer that can powerfully brand a product. Think of the Apple Mail swoosh. Or the cheerful “blop” of MobilePay. Sound design is tactile in its own way and it gives shape to actions.

What Could Come Next?

I haven’t yet seen great examples of combining scroll and sound. Or of using microphone or device motion in a meaningful, brand-aligned way. Games explore this all the time, but most digital services haven’t caught up.

I recently built a small web-based VJ tool that reacts to sound. The user can manipulate waves with audio input – clapping, blowing, tapping. It was just a fun prototype, but it got me thinking: what other sensory inputs could we play with?

What if a scarf brand let you blow on your phone and see silk ripple across the screen to show off texture and lightness? Or a wellness app adjusted breathing exercises based on your actual breath?

And soon, AI sales assistants will likely bring voice interactions into more experiences. “Tone of voice” will have a whole new and very literal meaning.

Luxury means different things to different people

In digital products, it often translates to seamless functionality – but our “materials” are limited to visuals and subtle effects that respond to touch or mouse.

Voice, sound, movement, and camera input remain largely unexplored.

Whatever the medium, if you can make your product feel trustworthy, beautiful – even sensual – that’s when you’re ahead.

Link to VJ tool:

https://joonasluotonen.github.io/wave_toy/