Curriculum for User Experience & Interaction Design Degree

In this course, we will explore how design and visual communication shape knowledge across cultures and history. Moving beyond Western-centric narratives, we will study global perspectives-from ancient writing systems to digital media-while engaging ideas from feminism, postcolonial theory, semiotics, and critical race theory. Through hands-on projects, we will connect historical analysis with creative practice, building critical thinking skills and producing original work that shows how creative expression both reflects and challenges cultural understandings. This course fulfills the requirement for FRM-118 Knowledge Making in the Creative Arts, Media and Humanities.

In this course, students will examine how historical forces have influenced the emergence of creative technologies and cultural production. They will learn to apply critical frameworks, including theories, to explore how power structures have intersected with popular appeal to alternately foster and limit creative innovation and expression. Students will also explore the dynamic nature of global culture, investigating how aesthetic ideas and creative practices have developed, spread, and influenced artists and creative production over time.

The course provides students with opportunities to develop specialized projects in art, humanities, and media production. Students will apply critical frameworks, including theories, and use interdisciplinary methods to explore how culture is shaped by popular appeal, innovation, and mechanisms of power. Students will work individually and collaboratively to bring creative work-narratives, images, multimedia forms-and rigorous scholarship to complex challenges in varied contexts.

A rewarding practice in any visual art discipline begins with language of vision. In this course you will explore the dynamics of two-dimensional form, beginning with basic compositional study using only black and white forms, and then more complex projects incorporating principles of tonality and color theory. You will also be developing your skills in physical artwork, essential to later course work. Basic art supplies are required; a packet is available in the College Bookstore, or contact the instructor or department prior to the semester for the list.

Screen-based interactive environments, whether games, mobile apps, websites, or interactive installations, are visual and communicative products. In this course, students develop the visual design judgment and process skills needed to design interfaces that are both aesthetically considered and user-centered. Through critique, research, and iterative design, students produce interface prototypes informed by user thinking and visual design principles.

This course brings together interaction design processes and principles through complex, real-world projects. Students tackle design challenges using systems thinking, iteration, and testing, learning to make thoughtful decisions that balance stakeholder needs with real-world constraints. Emphasizing process and communication over technical implementation, the course prepares students to create compelling UX and interface design solutions.

This course explores how interface design shapes user experiences across digital platforms. Students learn fundamental UX and interaction design principles by examining how interfaces enable or constrain navigation, storytelling, and user engagement. Through hands-on projects using industry-standard tools-from websites and mobile apps to games and digital installations-students develop skills in user-centered design thinking, prototyping, and critique while understanding how thoughtful interaction design creates meaningful, accessible, and engaging experiences.

This introductory course is designed for students who are curious about using programming as a tool for creative expression. Through a series of hands-on projects, students learn the fundamentals of coding in a visual and interactive context, creating original digital artworks using code. By the end of the course, students have a foundational understanding of how code can be used as a medium for artistic expression and the skills to create their own creative projects.

This hands-on course explores unconventional controller and interface design using sensors, microcontrollers, and creative materials. Students design and build unique interfaces that transform how players and audiences engage with games and interactive art, developing skills in physical computing and hardware prototyping along the way. The course also examines related issues around access, ethics, and emerging possibilities in experimental interaction design. No prior hardware experience required.

Students are introduced to the basic concepts of digital image-making through projects that balance the learning of creative development, technique, and design tools as they pertain to the Graphic Design field.

Designing for the web is fundamentally different from designing for print or static screens; layouts must flex, type must scale, and visual decisions play out across devices and contexts a designer can't fully predict. In this course, students develop hands-on fluency with the web as a design environment by analyzing existing sites, making intentional visual design decisions, and building responsive, multi-page websites using HTML and CSS. No prior coding experience required.

In this course students deepen their knowledge of web design and web technologies. You will learn a contemporary professional workflow that includes working with existing design systems, applying your knowledge of HTML and CSS to customize templates and components and extending sites built with a Content Management System.