The Master of Fine Arts in Experience Design embraces research-driven design thinking for entrepreneurship, innovation, and other areas, preparing students to be vital contributors and leaders at the intersection of innovation and design.
Experience design is a holistic and integrative approach to design that utilizes investigation into the human experience in specific situations to improve its quality, given an understanding of human goals, needs, and desires. For example, in the context of healthcare, an experience designer does not focus on the design of any one technology product, information system, or physical space. Instead, the designer is charged with understanding and improving the overall sequence of events that impact the patient before and during a hospital stay as well as through follow-up care.
The experience design program moves beyond design thinking to produce outcomes that demonstrate the value of human-centered research and design methods. It draws on findings from a range of professional and scholarly disciplines (including business, psychology, human-computer interaction, engineering, cybernetics) to understand and shape specific situations. It extends across many industries and aspects of life: healthcare, technology, services, travel, education, entertainment, shopping, dining, and the nature of work itself.
Through examining how people behave in a real context in relation to emerging technologies, the Master of Fine Arts in Experience Design allows graduates from design and related disciplines (such as communications, computer science, business, architecture, art, journalism, humanities, and the social sciences) to gain knowledge and experience in the design competencies. To accomplish these goals, students study how to invoke cooperation, collaboration, and integration across disciplines and practices.
The Master of Fine Arts in Experience Design seeks to prepare students to be vital contributors and leaders of professional experience design teams where technological innovation intersects with design. Successful graduates should be able to analyze how people undergo real-world situations, enabling them to enrich experience by orchestrating new design-driven relationships. They will be equipped with the skills to identify shortcomings as well as opportunities for improved engagement between systems and elements—virtual or physical—with the humans who encounter them.
Complete all courses and requirements listed below unless otherwise indicated.
Core Requirements
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
Required Core | ||
ARTG 5120 | Research Methods for Design | 4 |
ARTG 5600 | Experience Design Studio 1: Principles | 4 |
ARTG 5610 | Design Systems | 4 |
ARTG 5620 | Notational Systems for Experience | 4 |
ARTG 5640 | Prototyping for Experience Design | 4 |
ARTG 6310 | Design for Behavior and Experience | 4 |
ARTG 6600 | Experience Design Studio 2: Group and Interpersonal | 4 |
ARTG 6700 | Design Studio 3: Synthesis | 4 |
Thesis | ||
ARTG 7100 | Critical Design and Research Seminar | 4 |
ARTG 7910 | Design Project and Exhibition | 4 |
ARTG 7990 | Thesis | 4 |
Electives
Code | Title | Hours |
---|---|---|
Complete 16 semester hours of elective courses, such as these, in consultation with your advisor (multiple completions of ARTG 5000 may apply toward the elective requirement): | 16 | |
Topics in Design | ||
Visual Cognition | ||
Statistics for Design | ||
Visualization Technologies 1: Fundamentals | ||
Design for Dignity | ||
Information Design Theory and Critical Thinking | ||
Information Design Mapping Strategies | ||
Special Topics in Design | ||
Psychology of Play | ||
Biometrics for Design |
Program Credit/GPA Requirements
60 total semester hours required
Minimum 3.000 GPA required
Sample Two Years, One Co-op (Optional) Plan of Study
Year 1 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours | Summer Full Semester | Hours |
ARTG 5600 | 4 | ARTG 5610 | 4 | Co-op or vacation | |
ARTG 5120 | 4 | ARTG 6310 | 4 | ||
ARTG 5620 | 4 | ARTG 6600 | 4 | ||
ARTG 5640 | 4 | Elective | 4 | ||
16 | 16 | 0 | |||
Year 2 | |||||
Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours | ||
ARTG 6700 | 4 | ARTG 7100 | 4 | ||
Elective | 4 | ARTG 7910 | 4 | ||
Elective | 4 | ARTG 7990 | 4 | ||
Elective | 4 | ||||
16 | 12 | ||||
Total Hours: 60 |