Master of Science in
Digital Design and Interactive Technologies

The programme

The 2-year master programme in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies provides you with in-depth knowledge about how to design digital and interactive technologies with a user-driven approach. You develop a theoretical foundation and specific design skills by participating in different kinds of design processes. You will work both qualitatively and data-driven with design and concept development based on user needs, technological opportunities, and business values.

The master programme provides you with a broad understanding of digital design processes, from initial studies of the design domain to testing and implementation. You gain deep knowledge of data visualisation, context and user analysis, as well as basic understanding of the role digital designs and services play in our society and culture today and in the future.

 

 

 

You will learn to build functional prototypes of your concept ideas, and you will work with various design-oriented programming tools within, among other things, mobile interaction and ’IoT’. At the same time, you will learn to present and pitch the value of your ideas for future users, businesses, organisations, and other stakeholders.

The labor market seeks employees who possess skills to design digital solutions for different target groups and platforms. At Digital Design and Interactive Technologies, you will get the tools to work with design of digital products, systems and services both independently, in interdisciplinary teams, and under changing organisational conditions.

The programme is primarely taught in Danish but certain courses offer English language instruction and exams.

 



 

Meet students from Digital Design and Interactive Technologies

How do you make digital design for pregnancy?

Caroline and Camille has as part of their master's thesis studied digital design for expectant couples. Hear them explain their critical analysis of pregnancy products and examination of what expectant couples need.


Emilie wants to design the solutions of the future

Meet Emilie, who studies Digital Design and Interactive Technologies, and learn more about the study programme and why she chose to study it.


What do you learn on Digital Design and Interactive Technologies?

Jonas Fritsch is a lecturer on Digital Design and Interactive Technologies. Hear him explain how you learn to carry through a digital design process from from A to Z.

Who studies Digital Design and Interactive Technologies?

As a student of Digital Design and Interactive Technologies, you want to work innovatively with the design of digital and interactive technologies. You are motivated by learning the specific tools and practices within design processes and production of physical prototypes. You are curious about digital design and interactive technologies and you are ready to be challenged on your perception of what to do with it.


There is a great deal of group work and project work in this programme, so you should be motivated to collaborate with other students – especially across disciplines, as all of you enter the programme with diverse academic backgrounds.

Programme structure

The MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies is a flexible study programme. You will gain a solid skill-set within the fields covered by the programme, and you will have the opportunity to specialise within areas that you define. Throughout the programme you are free to form your own unique profile.


Course of study for MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies:
1st semester

Users in Context
7.5 ECTS

Introduction to Programming OR Programming Mobile Applications*
7.5 ECTS

Advanced Design Processes
15 ECTS
2nd semester Data Visualisation Design
7.5 ECTS
Experimental Design in Practice  
7.5 ECTS
Design-driven Innovation
7.5 ECTS
Specialisation
7.5 ECTS
3rd semester Values and Ethics in Design
7.5 ECTS
Elective
7.5 ECTS
Specialisation
15 ECTS
4th semester Master Thesis
30 ECTS

*If you have passed a course with significant overlap with the course Introduction to Programming prior to enrollment, you will instead take the course Programming Mobile Applications.


Mandatory courses

The mandatory content is distributed on the following courses:

  • Users in Context (7.5 ECTS) provides you with theoretical and analytical tools to understand how individuals and groups use digital designs and services in individual, organisational and social contexts. Furthermore, you will learn practical methods for studying users in different contexts.
  • Introduction to Programming (7.5 ECTS)The course provides students with a basic and hands-on understanding of computational thinking and programming both for their own future use [on the KDDIT programme] and for their ability to collaborate with experienced programmers and software developers after graduation. 
  • Programing Mobile Applications (7.5 ECTS) The course provides a hands-on introduction to crossplatform smartphone app programming. Students will use the  expo toolchain to implement JavaScript based React-Native apps.
  • Advanced Design Processes (15 ECTS) provides you with a research-based and design-theoretical foundation for planning and implementing design processes within interaction design, user experiences and co-design in a user-centered perspective. There will be focus on developing your design skills on a high level.
  • Data Visualisation Design (7.5 ECTS). In this course you will learn to visualize and present various data as well as understand data visualizations and data design as a socio-technical process with social, ethical and cultural consequences.
  • Experimental Design in Practice (7.5 ECTS) provides you with practical and theoretical understanding of and ability to develop experimental design projects.
  • Design-driven Innovation (7.5 ECTS) introduces you to various theories and methods to work with design-driven innovation and design of products, services and systems that create value for a company or an organisation.
  • Values and Ethics in Design (7.5 ECTS). On this course you will learn to understand, articulate and work critically with values and ethics in advanced and complex design contexts.

 

 





Specialisations and Master Thesis

On your second semester, you start your specialisation, where you can choose a topic to specialise further in. You can read more about the different specialisations below.

Both the specialisation and the master thesis gives you the opportunity to shape your own profile. You can also choose other courses offered at the IT University at master level or take courses at another Danish or foreign university. The master thesis can be completed in groups or individually.

See all courses offered at the IT University





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Specialisations

During your studies for the MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies you will have the opportunity to specialise in a topic that you wish to explore in-depth.

On your second semester, you start your specialisation, where you can choose a topic to specialise further in. A specialisation is a 22.5 ECTS package of courses that allows you to explore an area in-depth. The courses are selected carefully, so you experience a progression within the specialisation.

You can choose one of the following specialisations:

This specialization enables students to work with data in design. We construe data broadly and include qualitative and quantitative data, such as data created by or about users and their interactions. We consider both using data in design processes and design that include data, for example, in interactive visualizations.

Students will learn how to design the collection of data; analyze data; and present data. An integral part of this specialization is that students learn to critically reflect on what data means and what data does in a design process and in a finished product.

The specialization also aims at enabling students to work with data in collaboration with external stakeholders, and the wider public. 

The specialisation in Interaction Design embraces elements from computer science and design. This specialisation is relevant to many different industries because interaction design plays an important role in designing the technological foundation or in creating value and differentiation for interactive products. For interaction designers, it is a key concept to understand and investigate contexts where the specific product is to be used, and this is what forms the basis of the design activity.

This specialisation focuses on theories, exercises and methods that you can use to improve your ability to critically analyse, understand and develop interactive technologies through hands-on experiments. 

You can carry out your experiments in some of the IT University's various labs (e.g. IxD Lab or Design Lab). Here you will learn to demonstrate accurate and robust digital and physical interactive prototypes that work and you will develop your technical skills within programming. You will learn to innovate existing interactive products, define features for different products as well as develop strategies for product development.


On the specialisation in UX Design (User Experience Design) you will get theoretical frameworks, tools and techniques for designing innovative user experiences. Based on standard UX techniques, such as fast prototyping, wireframing and iterative design processes, and through playfull designs, story-based approaches and cultural studies, you will learn methods to develop prototypes for new user experiences. 

During the specialisation, you will develop skills that combine understanding of new design areas within interactive products with knowledge of business models for e.g. new interactive media and creative and cultural industries. The teaching and the courses on specialisation are project oriented.

Denmark is a leading country with regards to IT innovation and digitalization of public and private services. The Danish government, for example, has made digital communication mandatory for interaction with the public sector, which makes demands on the way digital services are designed. Service Design is an approach, which covers both the analysis and development of digital services. Service Design is based on theory, insights, and techniques from the design discipline as well as management and business administration.

The specialisation in Service Design will make you understand the complexity of digital service design processes in order to learn to manage these processes. In order to prepare you for innovation in diverse national and international contexts, the specialisation addresses Service Design for private companies, public organisation as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Relatedly, you will explore the differences, as well as the common denominators, when conducting Service Design across these settings. 

This specialisation is offered in collaboration with ITU's MSc in Digital Innovation Management.

The changes being brought about by digitalization processes are particularly visible in the public sector. A successful digital future, such as the one envisaged in various Danish digitalization strategies, requires a thorough engagement with the motivations, priorities, histories, practices and discourses that drive digitalization processes. It also requires a set of methodological tools and theoretical concepts suited to take into account the technologies at the centre of public digitalization, such as machine-learning algorithms, data centres, biometrics, satellite-based control mechanisms, social media platforms, digital patient journals and user portals.

This specialization provides you with a grounding in the history, theory, policy, expectations, challenges, practicalities and methods of digitalization initiatives. The two parts of the specialisation are united in their shared concern with ethnographic studies and both draw on theoretical frameworks from anthropology, Science and Technology Studies and organizational studies. In the first part, The Digital State, you develop an historically informed foundation for thinking about technologies and state projects over time, and a global perspective on public digitalization initiatives. The second part of the specialization, Digitalization and Public Sector Transformations, revolves around practical research projects in the local government setting and the different kinds of processes currently underway. 

By following the specialisation, you will gain critical skills in analysing, conceptualising and contextualising the changes around us. You will develop competences in the methods and techniques through which to study public digitalization yourself. Together, the two parts of the specialization provide a grounded and comparative understanding of the digitizing state in Scandinavia, and prepare you to work at the forefront of public sector transformations. 

You will carry out ethnographic research projects in groups in a local governmental setting, where you will study an ongoing IT project. As digital technologies transform internal work and management practices, they also transform the relation between welfare professionals and citizens. Understanding these processes of transformation and what they entail is crucial for working with digitalization, both in the public sector or a consultant in the private sector. 

Through your ethnographic research project, you will gain insight into the implementation and the organizational and societal changes caused by digitalization. Your project will enable you to link your empirical work to core theoretical concepts in the specialisation, and can be used as preparation for your thesis.

This specialisation is offered in collaboration with ITU's MSc in Digital Innovation Management.



Specialisation portraits

A successful digital future, as envisioned in various Danish digitization strategies, requires a focus on which motives, priorities, histories and decisions that drive digitization strategies. Meet Marianne and Julie, who have chosen the specialization in Public Digitization.

As part of the Digital Design and Interactive Technologies programme, you can choose a specialisation in UX Design (User Experience Design). Hear Daniel explain the specialisation and what he would like to use it for.

Teaching

Classes include lectures, group projects, and exercises. Students in the MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies come with different academic backgrounds. Some have backgrounds in music, art, and design, others within science and social sciences such as sociology and political science. This diversity creates a creative academic environment where projects are viewed and handled from many different perspectives.

Part of the teaching takes place in the IT University's labs, where you can produce prototypes of your concept and product ideas.

 

 


The IT University cooperates with the business community and you have the opportunity to collaborate with companies and organisations from both the private and public sector. This means that
you will work with real-world challenges and network outside the university during your studies.

Exchange

You have the opportunity to complete part of your education at a university abroad. The 3rd semester is especially suited for an exchange. This is a chance for you to further specialise your education and have the experience of working in a new environment and in a new country. The IT University has exchange agreements around the world, for example:

  • Australia – Queensland University of Technology
  • Australia – University of Technology Sydney
  • Finland – Aalto University
  • Italy – Polytechnic University of Milan
  • Japan – Kyoto University, Graduate School of Informatics
  • Turkey – Koç University



Career

With and MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies you will have a combination of theoretical insight and practical skills and you will, among other things, be qualified to work as:

  • Interaction Designer
  • User Experience Designer
  • Interface Designer
  • Design Researcher
  • Service Designer 

 

You may also work with digital concept development, and you will have the opportunity to work more broadly within fields such as digital project management or different kinds of jobs that concern digitisation and digitisation strategies in general.

If you are interested in applying for a PhD at the IT University, please read more here.


Career portrait

Martin is an MSc i Digital Design and Interactive Technologies and now works as a consultant at Devoteam. Hear about his different tasks and all the opportunities his degree has given him.

Digital Design contributes to the green transition

Hear Associate Professor Tom Jenkins talk about his research on designing sustainable transitions.

Are you interested in studying at the IT University of Copenhagen, and do you have questions about programmes, student life or the like, please contact the Study and Career Guidance.