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The MFA in Interaction Design is as much about invention as it is about the everyday. It requires students to be intimately attentive to human behavior and to think more holistically about the products and services they create. It explores the strategic role of interaction design in shaping everyday life, and intends to increase the relevancy of design to business and society so designers can make a difference. The definition of "difference" is something only students know -- a personal exploration only they can do -- and the program is designed to support that exploration over two years.

The program is collaborative. In a studio environment, students explore prototyping a range of experiences that cross visual, conceptual and technical boundaries. Grouped in trans-disciplinary teams, students work both in the studio and in the field to create inventive solutions to real-world problems.

The program is people-focused. We focus on teaching how people relate to one another through the products and technology we explore. Together with open lectures in the studio and joint experiments with the New York City community, the MFA Interaction Design program becomes a model and center point for interaction design in the City. Program faculty comprises the profession’s most exciting designers who culminate their professional days by teaching graduate courses in the evenings.

The program is practice-based. The MFA in Interaction Design is a professionally focused program aimed at training graduates to become practicing designers, entrepreneurs and contributors intending to make a difference. Upon graduation, students are prepared to take risks, invent new forms with business and academia, participate in strategic decision-making involved with the creation of interactive products and services, and are equipped with tools and methods to make smart choices no matter where they find themselves.

The program is your story. The courses are highly demanding, highly selective, and highly rewarding. It will ask students to have a vision, and to make choices to align with that vision. Students study concepts central to interaction design, including design research, human-computer interaction, interface design, graphic design, information architecture and ubiquitous computing. Each class becomes a community and each choice a commitment with a story to build upon.

The program seeks to cultivate interaction design as a discipline and further its visibility as a community of practice. We offer you the chance to participate.

Liz Danzico, chair