About the Course

This program is the first of its kind in Australia, created to infuse technological innovation with human-centered design thinking. Explore these technologies and their potential to solve critical problems in areas including urban informatics, wearable technology, health and responsive environments. Graduates are highly sought after by UX industry, software development, digital product design and creative industries. Technology is becoming closely interwoven into everyday life. How we create and design these interactions is crucial to their success and the positive impact they have on our lives. This understanding forms the core of the IDEA program's design philosophy: technology that is designed to delight its users. We aim to infuse the latest technological innovation with a human-centred design thinking to solve complex problems. The IDEA program promotes a creative and critical approach, within the framework of research-driven interaction design and user experience methodologies. The result is an understanding of how to design interactive products, services and systems that will have lasting cultural and commercial importance. In a foundation first semester, you will develop the essential industry knowledge and skills for working as an interaction or user experience designer, at ease with web and mobile applications. Once you have these core skills in human-centred design thinking, web/mobile interface design and software programming, you are trained to analyse and evaluate their application in a range of design contexts. This evaluative approach is what enables IDEA students to create meaningful interactive experiences that will become ubiquitous parts of our everyday life. In the second semester, you will engage in design studio projects to extend these skills, both conceptually and technically. We offer a studio-based teaching environment in which you work individually or in teams to creatively solve design challenges. You will learn to design across multiple platforms and scales - from natural, tangible and wearable user interfaces to interactive architecture, creative robotics and urban informatics. Your ideas may even become the basis of prototype products, patents or start-up services. You can adapt this program to suit your interests and passions by taking electives from other faculties. You will also build a compelling design portfolio showcasing not only your design skills but also your understanding of how best to convey the user experience of new products and services. The course is timetabled to suit your busy schedule. Subjects are run either in the evening or in intensive mode (a block series of Fridays and Saturdays). You can also study part-time. The course has embedded qualifications, enabling you to graduate after the foundation first semester with a Graduate Certificate, or continue on to Graduate Diploma or Masters level.

Institute Ranking

#40 in QS World University Rankings 2021, #2 in Australia

Program Ranking