Interactive Media Design (IMD) provides students with an expansive understanding of the processes and methods involved in conceiving, creating, and evaluating technology-mediated experiences. IMD students create media products ranging from video and immersive artworks to web-based and platform-specific apps while working in collaboration with their peers. With its interdisciplinary approach to interaction design and emphasis on studio practice, IMD enables students to develop creative solutions to complex problems. The two-year curriculum, grounded in an intensive cohort‐based learning environment, blends academic theory, human-centered design, artistic technique, process management approaches, and methods for gathering and analyzing critical metrics.
IMD majors graduate with a design portfolio that prepares them for careers in the arts and industry, as well as for graduate study. They are uniquely qualified to provide leadership across employment sectors concerned with interaction design in education, engineering, art, science, social media, and other forms of digital interactivity.
Major Requirements
Prerequisites (20 credits)
See our Admissions page for details about the IMD pre-requisite courses.
Major Requirements (75 credits)
IMD Core (55 credits)
Studio Elements Sequence, Year One
Integrative Studio Sequence, Year Two
A minimum 2.0 grade is required in each IMD Core course.
Upper Division Electives (20 credits)
Students must complete a minimum of 20 credits of 300-400 level coursework beyond the IMD Core Courses.
A minimum 2.0 cum gpa is required in all courses applied to the major.
Interactive Media Design Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the IMD degree students will be able to:
- Understand and engage critically with theories and concepts related to analysis, design, development and implementation of interactive media experiences and their social context.
- Use an interdisciplinary approach in the design and development of interactive media that applies engineering and user-centered, inclusive, community-based and universal design methodologies and best practices.
- Collaborate effectively, creatively, productively, and ethically using team and communication skills imbued with respect and empathy.
- Create interactive media experiences that engage unequal relations of power, knowledge, and difference, by learning from communities with multiple intersecting identities.
- Utilize a variety of technologies and tools to explore, develop, and deliver interactive experiences on commonly used platforms and infrastructure, as well as on novel and experimental interfaces and systems.
- Write and communicate clearly at all stages of project research, design, and implementation.
