Level up your skills in today’s complex world of rapidly advancing technology. ArtCenter's graduate Interaction Design (IxD) program is taught by cutting-edge industry practitioners in a project-based format that can support working professionals through evening and weekend classes.

This Master of Design (MDes) program is a one-year, three semester experience that allows students to enroll in either a 100% online cohort or an on-campus cohort. Coursework spans critical contemporary disciplines including advanced research methods, AI-driven design systems, strategic prototyping, futurecasting, creative leadership, and cross-disciplinary collaboration with engineers, product managers and organizational stakeholders.

This STEM-certified program prepares designers to operate across domains ranging from consumer products to AI-driven interfaces to automotive human-machine interaction (HMI) to extended reality (XR) and spatial computing, financial products, healthcare, service design and more.

Interaction design opens doors to a wide range of career opportunities. Our graduates have gone on to work at leading global companies, including GM, Hyundai, Fidelity Investments, Salesforce, Meta, Google and Apple, applying their skills across industries and helping shape the future of design and technology.

We believe that the field of interaction design is being transformed by AI but not replaced by it. We prepare our students to navigate this transformation through rigorous, systems-level thinking attuned to where the field is going as it barrels into the future. We teach our students to understand what AI can and cannot do in designing for the human experience within ethical frameworks.

We believe that today’s interaction designers need to know not just how to execute but how to lead. The Interaction Design MDes at ArtCenter is an opportunity to develop expertise in qualitative and quantitative user research, behavioral analysis, and synthesis methods that translate insight into defensible design decisions. It is an opportunity to learn to futurecast—anticipating technological, cultural and behavioral shifts and design ahead of them, not just responding to industry change, but strategically shaping it.

Connect with an Admissions Counselor to learn more about joining this innovative program at the forefront of human-technology interaction.

Careers

We are proud to have ArtCenter alumni who have gone on to senior roles across industries that are defining the next decade of human-technology interaction, working in roles such as:

• Senior or Lead Interaction Designer, UX/UI Designer or Service Designer
• Senior or Lead UX Researcher
• Human-AI Interaction Designer
• Automotive HMI Designer
• XR/Spatial Computing Designer
• Design Strategist
• Creative Technologist
• Design Manager
• Design Director

Eligibility for the Online IxD MDes Cohort

While enrollment in the IxD MDes on-campus cohort is open to students from all over the world, enrollment in the 100% online cohort is limited to students attending classes from a select number of U.S. states, South Korea, or Ontario, Canada. Visit our State Authorization page to learn more.

For students enrolled in the 100% online cohort, ArtCenter is not authorized to issue I-20s to enter the country to enroll in this program. International students who will be located in an authorized U.S. state can enroll in the 100% online cohort but will need to arrange for a visa that allows them to study online on their own.