MFA in Interaction Design

Graduates of the Interaction Design program will create richly interactive products, environments, and services that enhance meaning and expand possibilities in people’s daily lives.

Students in MFA Interaction Design at CCS undertake creative practice at the intersection of technology and design. You will learn how to sketch, hack, tinker, and prototype with hardware and software and come to view code as a creative medium. You will create practical and critical interactions and experiences for humans with objects, spaces, and interfaces.

Your studies at CCS will be grounded in experimental, speculative, and applied design practices that will prepare you for the changing nature of work and collaboration in the 21st century. You will have access to CCS’s world-class studios and technical resources, allowing you to further your own skills and knowledge through hands-on experience with new and emerging technologies and prototyping methods. Through critical inquiry and design provocations, you will sharpen your insights and become adept with models of interaction and communication.

Upon graduation, you will be equipped to work inside of tech companies and design firms, from established players to startups. Or you might decide to go it alone! You might design a professional online network for consultants who want to work together flexibly and enhance their skills and reputations along the way. You might prototype a mobile app for small businesses that need real-time alerts and coordinated schedules to keep productivity high and costs low. Or you might invent entirely new experiences for sharing rides in the self-driving car.

This unique program balances research, modeling, and making, teaching you how to step beyond the limits of today’s technology and market demands to shape desired futures through design. For your career, you can choose where you want to contribute: from designing products to coding prototypes to running product strategy or a combination. You will have the skills to persuade and influence your co-workers, who will be experts in technology, marketing, and business, by understanding their language and working as their peers. You will have an appreciation for the challenges of innovation and for what is required to start your own enterprise.

The College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a nonprofit, private college authorized by the Michigan Education Department to grant Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. CCS, located in midtown Detroit, strives to provide students with the tools needed for successful careers in the dynamic and growing creative industries. CCS fosters students’ resolve to pursue excellence, act ethically, engage their responsibilities as citizens, and learn throughout their lives. With world-class faculty and unsurpassed facilities, students learn to be visual communicators who actively use art and design toward the betterment of society. The College is a major supplier of talent to numerous industries, such as transportation, film and animation, advertising and communications, consumer electronics, athletic apparel, and many more. Its graduates are exhibiting artists and teachers, design problem solvers and innovators, as well as creative leaders in business.

Founded in 1906 as the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, CCS plays a key role in Detroit’s cultural and educational communities. A private fully accredited college, CCS enrolls more than 1,400 students, pursuing Master of Fine Arts degrees in Color and Materials Design, Interaction Design, Systems Design Thinking and Transportation Design and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Advertising Design, Art Education, Art Practice (Fine Arts), Communication Design, Craft & Material Studies, Entertainment Arts, Fashion Accessories Design, Illustration, Interior Design, Photography, Product Design, and Transportation Design. The College also offers free art education for more than 4,000 Detroit youth annually through its Community Arts Partnerships program. In addition, the College’s University Prep: Art & Design is a public charter middle and high school enrolling more than 800 students in a high-performance academic curriculum with a special focus on art and design.