Master of Science in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies

The programme

The MSc programme in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies provides you with in-depth knowledge of how to design digital technologies. You will develop a critical and analytical mindset and gain hands-on design skills to rethink and shape new interactive technologies.

The programme offers an academic foundation for thoughtful reflection on the impact of technology. You will develop qualitative research skills, enabling you to study and articulate how interactive technologies are used. The programme also provides practical skills to design technology in creative, functional, and responsible ways. The mix of theory and hands-on projects prepares you to tackle design challenges in both academic and commercial settings.

Throughout the two years of the programme, you will learn to manage complex processes of design, from initial studies to concept development, data representation, programming, and design implementation. You will acquire technical skills to build prototypes, work with various programming tools, and develop your design proposals. Additionally, you will learn effective strategies to present and articulate the value of your ideas in persuasive ways.

Your first year will offer a solid theoretical and practical foundation to analyse, explore, and develop digital designs and interactive technologies. During your second year, you can shape your individual academic and professional profile and choose a focus on either interaction design, UX design, or data-driven design.

The programme deepens your understanding of design and digital technologies and enhances your academic competencies to navigate the job market. With a master’s in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies, you acquire a reflective, critical, and responsible stance for mastering digital innovation in a rapidly evolving technological world.

The programme is primarily delivered in Danish, although selected courses are offered with English language instruction and exams.

 

Meet students from Digital Design and Interactive Technologies

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Is this programme for you?

Are you curious about how technology is used in everyday life? Do you want to design responsible digital solutions that have both societal impact and commercial value? As a student of Digital Design and Interactive Technologies, you will gain comprehensive design knowledge and practical experience in working with programming, so you are able to create interactive digital design solutions.

The programme welcomes students continuing from bachelor degrees in design as well as students from related academic areas such as engineering, entrepreneurship, software development, social science, the humanities and art.

The master’s programme nurtures a critical stance towards technological development, placing a strong emphasis on cultivating both analytical and technical design skills to complement your bachelor’s degree.

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

Studerende fra DDIT

What do you learn on Digital Design and Interactive Technologies?

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Programme structure

The MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies offers courses covering the three pillars of the programme: data and analysis, interactive technologies, and design theory and methods. Your first year will comprise of mandatory courses that offer a solid academic and practical foundation, while your second year can be shaped by special topics and electives to give direction to your own professional design profile.

 

Please find the curriculum for MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies (Danish)


 Course
(7.5 ECTS)		 Course
(7.5 ECTS)
 Course
(15 ECTS)
1st semester
 Situated Technology
(7.5 ECTS)
 Programming Experimental Interactions
(7.5 ECTS)

 Advanced Design Processes
(15 ECTS)
2nd semester
 Datafication and Representation
(7.5 ECTS)

 Programming Mobile Applications
(7.5 ECTS)

 Digital Innovation in Practice
(15 ECTS)
3rd semester

 Values and Ethics in Design
(7.5 ECTS)		 Elective or Project
(7.5 ECTS)		 Special Topic
Interaction Design
or Service Design
or UX Design
(15 ECTS)
4th semester
 Master Thesis
(30 ECTS)
Data og analyse
Interaktive teknologier
Designteori og metoder

Mandatory courses

The mandatory content is distributed on the following courses:

Data and analysis

  • Situated Technologies (7.5 ECTS) offers theoretical and methodological foundation for analysing and understanding how people use and interact with digital technologies in situated practice.
  • Datafication and Representation (7.5 ECTS) provides you with a critical analytical stance towards data: What it is, where it comes from, and what it means to represent it, with a focus on data visualization.

Interactive technologies

  • Programming Experimental Interaction (7.5 ECTS) provides you with the creative and technical skills to design and develop novel interactions with technology.
  • Programming Mobile Applications (7.5 ECTS) gives you technical skills to programme mobile applications. The course builds on basic JavaScript programming skills and introduces React Native for cross-platform mobile smartphone app development.

Design theory and methods

  • Advanced Design Processes (15 ECTS) provides you with a research-based and design-theoretical foundation for planning and implementing design processes. There will be focus on developing skills within interaction design, user experiences, and co-design in a user-centred perspective.
  • Digital Innovation in Practice (15 ECTS) presents various theories and methods to work with innovation driven by design. You will learn to design products, services, and systems that create value for a company or an organisation.

Other

  • Values and Ethics in Design (7.5 ECTS) will teach you to understand, articulate, and work critically with values and ethics in advanced and complex design contexts.

Special topics, electives, and master’s thesis

With a special topic, an elective course and your master’s thesis you have opportunity to shape your own profile. You can read more about the three special topics below. For the elective course you can choose between several master courses offered at the IT University or take electives at a different Danish or international university. You can also choose to do a research project or a project with an external partner. The master’s thesis can be completed in groups or individually.

See all courses offered at the IT University

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Special topics

During your studies for the MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies you will have the opportunity to choose a special topic of 15 ECTS that you wish to explore in-depth.

You can choose one of the following:

Interaction Design (15 ECTS) is an exploratory, making-led discipline used to design and create compelling interactive products and systems. The course explores the possibilities of interaction, considering both the expressive qualities of computers as well as the values that an interaction creates and supports. You will be exposed to a range of technologies and respond to design briefs on projects that create novel, context-appropriate design artefacts, building technological fluency. Characteristic for the course is a hands-on, reflective, and practice-based teaching approach in a studio workspace, enabling you to concretise design theories and to theorise from your own design practice.

Service Design (15 ECTS): As part of the digitalization of society, services are becoming increasingly digital and connected with other services and infrastructures. Service Design has become an important approach that addresses the analysis, evaluation and development of services. In addition to learning about the principles, methods and tools, the student will acquire competencies for addressing the complexities involved in service design processes. Students will develop skills needed for both service innovation and re-design of existing services as well as for helping organizations (including private companies, public organisations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)) adopt customer- and service-oriented thinking through group projects.

UX Design (15 ECTS) focuses on the interaction that users have with products, such as websites, apps, and wearable computers, and making those everyday interactions useful, enjoyable, and accessible. With new digital technology such as AI and Machine Learning being rapidly adopted in consumer products, UX designers play an essential role to digest and re-imagine how interactions with these products are useful, enjoyable, and ethical. You will get theoretical frameworks, design methods, and technical tools for designing user experiences, and will particularly explore the high-growth field of UX for AI and Machine Learning.


 

 


Teaching

Classes include lectures, group projects, and exercises. Students enrolled in the MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies brings diverse academic backgrounds, spanning disciplines from music, art, and design to engineering, sociology and political science.

This diversity fosters 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 physical prototypes of your concept and product ideas.

The IT University cooperates with the business community, and you will 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 in your 3rd semester. 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
  • Italy – Università di Trento
  • Japan – Kyoto University, Graduate School of Informatics 
  • Norway – University of Oslo

 

Career opportunities

With a MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies you will have a combination of theoretical insight and practical skills. Examples of job titles you could undertake:

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

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

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Digital Design contributes to the green transition

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Do you need help?

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.



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