MDesInteraction Design

Our faculty are all practicing designers with extensive industry connections. They work for Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, IDEO, and numerous design consultancies in the Bay Area and beyond. Their expertise in user experience design, user interfaces, interactive media, gaming, and service design—just to name a few fields—helps shape our intentional curriculum for future design leaders.

Our students’ talent for creative, human-centered design sets them up for success in a variety of professional fields. Hands-on experience in the Social Lab gives them the practical skills they need to leverage design for social impact. Our alumni develop augmented reality interfaces for surgeons, design semi-autonomous electric cars, and make apps that help people overcome addiction. Wherever they are in the world, they make an impact through elegant, ethical, and sustainable design practices.

The MDes in Interaction Design is an intensive one-year, three-semester program. We welcome students of all ages and backgrounds who are collaborative systems thinkers and aspiring design leaders. Many of our applicants have five to seven years of professional experience and are ready to take their careers in new directions. Admission to our program is based on the strength of personal essay responses, portfolio submissions, transcripts, and recommendation letters.

The MDes program develops craft, collaboration, and leadership skills through concentrated teamwork. Students spend a significant amount of time making, reading, writing, presenting, and working on interpersonal communication. We look for evidence of your capacity to engage fully with these requirements in your essays, resume, and recommendation letters.

Start your application

You’ll apply to CCA and submit all required application materials via SlideRoom. Afterward, you may be contacted for an interview with a faculty member as part of the application process. Being selected for an interview doesn’t indicate applicant status or increase or decrease an applicant’s chances of being admitted into their desired graduate program. Interviews are conducted at the program’s discretion and are used to gain more insight into an application.

MDes application requirements

• Application and $70 nonrefundable application fee
  To be completed and submitted on SlideRoom.
  
  
• Resume/curriculum vitae
  Please outline your educational and professional background and relevant experiences and activities, including community work. Resumes/CVs must be in PDF document format.
  
  
• Two recommendation letters
  You’ll request two letters of recommendation from academic or professional sources in SlideRoom by entering the contact information for your recommenders/references. They will then receive an automated email from SlideRoom with instructions for uploading their letter of recommendation.
  
  
• Unofficial college transcripts
  You are required to provide your complete undergraduate academic history. Students who have already taken graduate courses are encouraged to submit those transcripts, too. For international applicants, all transcripts must be in English or accompanied by a certified English translation.
  
  Please provide an unofficial transcript from the college where you will receive or have received your bachelor’s degree, as well as unofficial transcripts for all other undergraduate coursework. Unofficial transcripts will be used for review purposes.
  
  Once you have been admitted and enrolled, all students will need to submit official, sealed transcripts showing the completion of a bachelor’s degree to our graduate admissions office by August 1 of the fall semester they begin enrollment at CCA.
  
  
• Proof of English proficiency (international applicants only)
  Review and plan to meet our English proficiency requirements for graduate students.
  
  
• Personal essay
  You’ll answer six open-ended questions, one recorded in video form and four in written form. Answers to each question should aim to be 500 words or less:
  
  
  • What draws you to the field of interaction design at this time? Your answer to this question should be recorded in a video, up to 90 seconds maximum length. Be sure to include your definition of interaction design, and show us your personality in the video.
  • The MDes program at CCA helps you develop professional leadership skills. Describe a time when you demonstrated professional leadership in collaboration with others to create change. What did you learn about yourself as a leader in the process?
  • The MDes program at CCA collaborates with community partners. What’s your approach to building community or engaging with a specific community? Please provide a specific example, whether it’s informal (e.g., planting trees in your neighborhood) or structured (e.g., ongoing volunteering with a nonprofit or NGO), and describe the outcomes of your work.
  • What complex problem or social challenge inspires you to bring your design skills to it? Please describe why you selected this particular challenge and what drives you to propose a solution. How will you know your solution is a success?
  • Describe how you’ve overcome a situation in the past by using a mindset of curiosity, framing, iteration, communication, collaboration, and measurement. How did it help you grow?
  • What are your expectations of the MDes program and CCA?
• Portfolio
  We look for design excellence in your portfolio since the program’s primary emphasis is on design craft skills (not technical skills). Portfolios do not need to be in a specific field; a strong graphic or industrial design portfolio will be looked at more favorably than a weak UX portfolio. We also look for your aptitude in tackling complex challenges and engaging with community, perhaps through volunteer work in nonprofits or exploring how design might better address critical social challenges. In addition to academic and professional work, applicants are encouraged to include personal work.
  
  The portfolio can include up to 25 still images, video, and time-based or interactive media. You may also link to media from YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud. Dimensions for portfolio slide pages/case study pages should not exceed 1920 x 1080 pixels per page, with a minimum 8-point / 10-pixel height type.
  
  Allowed media types:
  • Images (up to 5 MB each)
  • Video (up to 250 MB each)
  • Audio (up to 30 MB each)
  • PDFs (up to 10 MB each)
  • External media from YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud
    
    Note: Applicants who wish to submit video or time-based media must submit a 3-minute sample reel. The reel should be labeled clearly with the title, date, running time, and description of the work it contains.

For prospective student inquiries, including questions about the program or how to apply, please contact us