School of Industrial Design
Industrial Design deals with products, services and systems addressing usability, form, function, aesthetics, material, technologies, and sustainability. Our students explore creative thinking and problem-solving processes to bring value to companies, communities and people. Our focus is on designing products, systems and services that make life easier. At the School of Industrial Design, we balance creativity, technology, cultural concerns, and environmental needs, exploring materials, production techniques, aesthetics, the emerging fields of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Artificial Intelligence, and social issues in both local and global contexts. We encourage our students to create solutions that are empathetic to the end-user and have contextual insight. Our new B. Des. in Interaction Design has been programmed and launched in response to the needs of users and Industry.

Why study Interaction Design (IxD) at UID?

UID offers a specialized IxD course for four years culminating in the award of a B. Des Degree. A dedicated faculty with experience in IxD from industry transmit learning through in-depth theory and hands-on practice in well-equipped labs, purpose built for the subject. With its close links with professional bodies like IxDA and inputs from a stellar array of industry experts, high class infrastructure and a wonderful learning environment, UID is a natural choice for aspirants of IxD in India.

Programme Philosophy

The landscape of Design is a rich interlacing of products, systems, services, communication and immersive experiences, with evolutionary change happening at such a rapid pace that the very structures that underpin its spiraling growth serve as take-off points into the unknown, making for a continually mutating model of education. Traditional design education, based on hallowed tenets that have emerged from the Industrial Revolution, progressed through the ‘Industrial age’ into the ‘Information age’, the ‘Communication age’, and is now immersing itself in the ‘Experience age’, where users interact with their environment and all that is within it in totally new ways, where the environment interacts with users and products (the term ‘products’ used as broadly as possible), where products engage with users, and each other, creating a vast spectrum of interactions. Whereas the earlier realms of design dealt how products are used, where the material as opposed to the immaterial was central, they now deal with how products are ‘experienced’ and have increasingly ventured into the intangible and the virtual, the brave new world of human-machine communication and artificial intelligence.

Course Structure

The course spans eight semesters, the first two being foundation semesters with emphasis on developing requisite skills for design practice and understanding of the process of design. Subsequent semesters take a student through specific IxD related courses spanning Human Computer Interaction, Usability Design, Information Architecture, Testing, Computing, Ethnography, Mobile applications, Human -Robot Interaction, User Interfaces, Ergonomics, Research & Experimental Methods, Visual Communication & Industrial Design methods, future trends; exposure to real-life situations through study tours and industry internships, culminating in a Graduation Project with Industry that exposes students to real-world applications and professional practice.

Students will be able to choose between broad specializations in Communication Design and Industrial Design from their fifth semester onwards. Agile learning, future forecasting and inter-disciplinary courses will however equip graduates to seamlessly fit into the myriad professional applications of Interaction Design.

Graduates of IxD can further do their Masters in HCI, AI and allied fields in the coming years. A comprehensive program is in development and will offer end to end learning at UID.

Career Prospects in IxD

Interaction Design is closely allied with and indispensable in a myriad of fields including:

· UI/UX
· VR/MR/AR
· Installation
· Playful experiences
· Storytelling/Film
· Culture/Issues
· Speculative/Critical
· Product design
· Communication Design
· Education
· Wearables
· Mobile applications
· HCI
· Human – Robotics Interaction
· Web design
· Service Design

The role of IxD is vast and growing and will continually evolve. In India there has been an enormous demand for Interaction Design and allied jobs. To quote an expert in the field, “The market will continue to expand once we put our mind to the future ahead of us. If we make our products tangible enough for users, the scope is never ending.”