Designing Badges: a practical guide to creating digital badges people recognize and share

TLDR

Great badge design balances brand, clarity, and verifiability. Use a square canvas, ship clean shapes and strong contrast, keep text minimal, embed rich metadata, and publish a public verification page. Test badge clarity and recognition across various sizes and make sharing to LinkedIn effortless.

What a digital badge is and why design matters

A digital badge is a visual symbol of achievement with verifiable metadata. A badge serves as a symbol of achievement and identity. The image is only half the story. The other half is the embedded data that names the achievement, issuer, recipient, criteria, and evidence. Key elements such as icons, logos, and colors contribute to a badge’s recognition. Good design, including the incorporation of a logo for brand consistency, improves recognition, trust, and shareability.

Core anatomy of a high performing badge

• Starting with a template can streamline the badge creation process, allowing you to quickly build on a customizable foundation.

1. Shape that reads instantly. Circles, shields, and ribbons work well because they remain recognizable when scaled down.
2. Central icon for the skill or domain. Keep it simple and avoid intricate line art.
3. Brand frame. Customize the frame to match your organization’s branding by adjusting colors, fonts, and images for a cohesive look.
4. Minimal text. Use a short title or level token only. Make sure design elements such as colors and icons match for consistency. Avoid paragraphs inside the graphic.
5. Verification URL behind the badge. Every badge should resolve to a public page that shows issuer, criteria, date, and status.

Maintaining high quality in both visual design and embedded data ensures your badges are credible and perform well.

Canvas, size, and format

• Use a square canvas. Export at least 600 by 600 pixels in PNG. SVG is ideal when your platform supports it because it stays crisp at any size.
• Keep a safe margin around the edge so rings and ribbons do not get cropped.
• If you include text inside the image, test at 64 by 64 pixels to ensure letters do not blur.

Accessibility and legibility

• Aim for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text.
• Prefer bold, simple icons and avoid red plus green combinations that can fail for color-blind users.
• Do not rely on color alone to signify levels. Combine color with shapes or labels like Bronze, Silver, Gold.

Levels, pathways, and families

• Define tiers such as Foundational, Applied, Advanced. Use consistent visual cues so a learner or recruiter can understand progression at a glance.
• Map badges into learning pathways. Milestone or capstone badges can represent completion of several prerequisites.
• Maintain a style guide that fixes color, icon style, ring thickness, and naming rules across the family.
• Badge families and pathways can be issued to multiple recipients efficiently, making it easy to support large-scale recognition programs.

Naming and microcopy

• Keep titles short and specific. Use Skill plus Level or Skill plus Context. Example: Data Analysis Applied.
• Write crisp criteria in the metadata. Mention assessment type, grade threshold, evidence, and include recipient information for validation and personalization.
• Set expiration and renewal policy where appropriate to keep signals fresh.

Open Badges and standards

Open Badges are a widely recognized type of digital badge that follow a specific open badge standard, making them both verifiable and portable across different platforms. The open badge standard, now at version 3.0, sets out a clear framework for creating, issuing, and verifying digital badges. Each badge includes essential metadata such as issuer information, achievement criteria, issue date, and verification details—ensuring that every badge tells a complete and trustworthy story. By adopting the open badge standard, organizations can create professional, verifiable digital badges that recipients and employers can trust. These badges are designed for maximum recognition and visibility, allowing achievements to be easily displayed and validated on social media, professional networks, and digital portfolios. Using open badges not only increases the value of each badge but also ensures that achievements are recognized and respected across a wide range of platforms.

Export, QA, and publishing checklist

• Export a badge image in PNG 600 by 600 or higher. Save a master SVG if you work in vectors.
• Test at small sizes. Verify the icon and title still read at 64 by 64 and 128 by 128.
• Bake or attach metadata according to the Open Badges standard.
• Before publishing, thoroughly validate all issued badges for accuracy, correct metadata, and proper display across platforms.
• Upload the final badge image and metadata to the platform, ensuring you are uploading the correct files so the badge image displays properly.
• Publish a verification page for each assertion.
• Provide recipients with one click Add to profile or a clear how to add badges guide for LinkedIn.
• Track acceptance, profile adds, shares, and verification clicks to prove impact.

Digital badge display

Digital badges are designed to be showcased wherever achievements matter most. Recipients can display their badges on personal or company websites to highlight certifications and skills, or add them to digital portfolios to demonstrate professional growth. Sharing digital badges on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook helps recipients promote their knowledge and achievements to a broader audience, increasing both visibility and credibility. Embedding badges in email signatures is another effective way to let colleagues, clients, and partners instantly verify credentials and learn more about the badge’s significance. For organizations, displaying badges in physical spaces—such as office walls or conference booths can reinforce a culture of recognition and achievement. No matter the platform or context, digital badges serve as a powerful tool to showcase skills, build trust, and celebrate accomplishments.

Managing and tracking digital badges

Effective management and tracking are essential for any successful digital badge program. Organizations should use dedicated digital badge platforms to create, issue, and monitor badges, ensuring each badge remains valuable and relevant. These platforms offer features like automated badge issuance, recipient notifications, and analytics dashboards to track engagement and measure impact. Administrators can easily update badge designs, criteria, and metadata, keeping badges aligned with evolving standards and organizational goals. By actively managing and tracking digital badges, organizations can maintain the integrity of their recognition program, respond to recipient feedback, and demonstrate the ongoing value of their badges to both earners and stakeholders.

Integrating digital badges with other tools

Integrating digital badges with other tools and systems can significantly enhance the reach and effectiveness of your badge program. By connecting badges to learning management systems (LMS), organizations can automatically issue badges when learners complete courses or achieve milestones, streamlining the recognition process. Integration with social media platforms enables recipients to share their badges widely, increasing recognition and engagement. Linking digital badges to employee skills databases or HR systems allows organizations to track and manage employee skills and knowledge, supporting talent development and workforce planning. These integrations help create a seamless experience for both issuers and recipients, ensuring that digital badges deliver maximum value and recognition across all relevant platforms and tools.

Digital badge wallets and sharing

Digital badge wallets are secure online platforms where recipients can store, manage, and share their digital badges. These wallets make it easy for individuals to organize their achievements and showcase their skills to employers, clients, or educational institutions. With just a few clicks, recipients can share their badges via email, social media, or add them to online portfolios, boosting their professional credibility and visibility. Digital badge wallets also allow recipients to keep their badges up-to-date, track which badges have been shared or downloaded, and manage multiple badges from different issuers in one place. For organizations, encouraging the use of badge wallets helps promote their brand and demonstrates a commitment to meaningful recognition and certification. By enabling easy sharing and management, digital badge wallets empower recipients to take pride in their achievements and maximize the value of their digital credentials.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Tiny body text or long titles inside the graphic. Move details to metadata and the verification page.
• Inconsistent colors and borders across a badge family. Create a mini style system and use it every time.
• Low contrast palettes that look great on white but fail on dark or mobile backgrounds.
• Saving only a PDF. Always export a proper PNG or SVG square asset.
• Failing to focus on the most impactful design and verification steps, such as automation, integration, and user experience, can reduce the effectiveness of your badge program.
• Forgetting to include a unique id in the badge metadata makes it difficult to ensure traceability, credibility, and proper verification.

How to create badges in Sertifier

• Use Sertifier as your digital badge maker to design once and issue digital badges at scale.
• Create a personalized badge for each recipient using Sertifier’s customization tools, including unique fonts, icons, colors, and media uploads to reflect your brand.
• Create badge families that map to your programs and levels.
• Attach criteria, skills, and evidence to each badge class.
• Issue automatically from your LMS or enrollment system and give recipients the exact Credential URL required for LinkedIn’s Licenses and Certifications section.
• Monitor acceptance and share activity to learn which badge titles and visuals drive the most engagement.

Sertifier offers free tools and templates to help you get started, and provides video tutorials to guide you through badge creation and management. Sign up for a free account to start designing and issuing digital badges today.

Step by step: creating badges your audience will trust

1. Define the learning outcome and assessment.
2. Choose tier and family.
3. Sketch the icon and pick a color from your brand palette. Consider incorporating images, such as your organization’s logo or relevant icons, to personalize the badge and enhance its visual appeal.
4. Build the badge on a square canvas with a clear ring and safe margins. Align the badge design with your organization’s branding guidelines by using brand-specific fonts, colors, and decorative elements to create a cohesive branded experience.
5. Run a contrast check and a 64-pixel readability test.
6. Export PNG 600 by 600 and archive the SVG master.
7. Add Open Badges metadata plus a public verification page.
8. QA on desktop and mobile.
9. Issue, then coach earners to share on LinkedIn with the correct Credential URL.
10. Review analytics in your dashboard and iterate. Ensure the badge meets the standards of professional badges, maintaining a consistent and credible appearance for your organization.