Program structure

 
The MAS Program covers 2 semesters and it is developed through four kinds of modules:
 
1. The Fundamental Module gives students the basic skills for the interaction design practice;
 
2. The Design Modules give students the opportunity to face a particular area of interaction design through the development of projects with a different scale and centred around different design topics;
 
3. The Common Modules give students interaction design knowledge to support the design activity.
 
4. The Thesis Module is focused on the development of the thesis project, where the student works in term of design research to generate applicable knowledge and new forms of entrepreneurships.

The Fundamental Module is organised in a series of workshops that merge design competencies with those ones coming from the computer science fields. These workshops give students the fundamental design and technical backgrounds of the interaction design discipline useful to prototype interactive artifacts, environments, networks and services.
 
The Design Modules investigate four specific design topics:
 
– the conception and the development of Advanced Artifacts, the relation between the human being and the development of new kinds of objects;
– the conception and the development of Advanced Environments, considering human beings and their immersion in a specific physical or cognitive context;
– the conception and the development of Advanced Networks, considering how human beings can be connected sharing information and experiences;
– the conception and the development of Advanced Services, how human beings are involved in new work sequences and processes, new relations and forms of business.
 
The Common Modules consist in 5 courses that give students the theoretical, methodological and technical knowledge to face the issues concerning the fields of interaction design;
 
The Thesis Module schedules the thesis development. The student has to select and define the thesis topic, to write an essay that focuses his/her research area, to search for a thesis advisor and the establishment of a network of competencies with people, institutions and companies necessary to the completion of the thesis project.
 
The MAS curriculum is composed of theoretical (Th), methodological (Me) and technical (Te) courses in an average of 40%, and of project units for the remaining part.