Master of Arts in Design with Concentration in Interaction & User Experience Design

The Department of Design advances the professional work of thoughtful, creative, and meaningful design to delight, inspire, and serve the needs of people. Design is the planning that lays the basis for creation and development of every object or system people use. Design programs train students to be problem solvers who consider the aesthetic, functional, and user-focused aspects of an object or a process. This requires considerable integrative research, thought, modeling, interactive adjustments, and redesign.

Interaction Design and User Experience involves researching and fashioning products, services, and systems that are useful, usable, and desirable. Interaction design and user experience offers a human-centered approach to innovation, creatively mediating how businesses engage with customers and how brands and organizations can become more relevant in the marketplace. Broadly speaking, interaction design and user experience defines the contextual behavior of artifacts, environments, and systems.

The Interaction Design program is for prospective students who already hold design-related baccalaureate degrees and are seeking advanced study in a versatile, rapidly growing professional design discipline. Applicants should have at least 2 years of full-time professional work experience in design or a design-related field.

The master’s student in interaction design and user experience should demonstrate the ability to conduct original design research, translate research insights into design input, and produce an interactive artifact of relevance and quality. The graduate will have completed significant course work and a thesis that documents independent discovery and research and will have passed an oral examination on that work. For more information about the program M.A in Interaction Design and User Experience.

The design department offers 2 Master of Arts degrees, which share a core curriculum.

The M.A. in Design Management and Strategy educates students in the theory, methods, and practices relevant to managing design in an organizational and business context. The program gives students the requisite knowledge to augment their professional skills and abilities, perform as effective design managers, and advance their careers.

The M.A. in Interaction Design and User Experience educates students in the theory, methods, and practices of interaction design. It gives students the requisite professional knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform as interaction designers.

KU is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The entrance and graduation requirements in this catalog conform to the published guidelines of that organization.