Fall 12 credits
GRID 603—Design Studio I
3 credits
This studio is structured around collaboration with businesses, for- and not-for-profit organizations and community. Projects focus on organizational development, service design and design for user-experience. Studio teams combine first and second year MID students. As first-year students are introduced to the human-centered design process and methodology, second year students take on the leadership role as team managers and facilitators. There is a strong emphasis on design research and synthesis, clear and highly visual communication, and the prototyping and practice is additionally supported through Design Methods I and II (GRID 604 and 704).
GRID 604—Design Methods I
3 credits
As a complement to the studio course (GRID 603), this course helps to develop the skills and methods required to realize successful design projects. Put into practice, these “”tools”” enable and support a design process that is increasingly shared with other disciplines, facilitates collective learning, and produces actionable strategies for change. Special emphasis is placed on participant field research, system mapping, the development of design-orientated scenarios and the ability to communicate design thinking and concepts in a clear and compelling way. Content of the coursework comes directly from the studio projects.
GRID 611—Design Seminar: Concepts and Contexts
3 credits
A seminar devoted to examining the shift in cultural, technological, material, and professional landscapes that a graduate design candidate must navigate. Through readings, presentations, and discussions, students explore how these evolved contexts are changing the nature of design practice and thinking. Special emphasis is placed on developing key concepts and ideas that inform the work that the students undertake throughout their program. The seminar works in parallel with the studio course; topics and themes covered in the seminar are germane to the studio projects.
GRID 626—Team Building
3 credits
Through a combination of readings, discussion, and participation in thematic events, as well as the study of their own behavior, students learn about the nature of authority and responsibility, anxiety, communications, the evolution of norms and the underlying assumptions that often govern team development. Students will also learn how a task with a specific deadline and collective responsibility for a product affects team dynamics and is effected by them.
Spring 18 credits
ELEC XX3—Elective Course(s)
3 credits
Free electives play an important role in the University’s mission of providing a dynamic milieu for creative exploration, innovation, and intellectual investigation, extending the practice and understanding of the arts and the arts profession. They give the student the opportunity to explore subjects beyond those offered or required by the major department and encourage educational autonomy on the student’s part.
An elective is defined as any studio or liberal arts course that is neither a requirement for the student’s major nor a requirement for the University’s liberal arts core. Electives are courses that a student can choose freely without restriction. While advisors may make recommendations regarding electives, the final choice for elective courses must rest with the student. Obviously, prerequisites and corequisites apply to any course that a student may elect to take.
GRAD 655—Graduate Seminar: Visual Culture Studies
3 credits
In this graduate seminar we examine the content and evolution of contemporary visual culture—that is everything we see, may see, or visualize and the how we use visual and textual means to communicate, define, and produce our culture and its artifacts. We examine historic origins and changing contexts that underlie and inform a broad range of creative practices including art, design, architecture, cinema, media, display, material culture, digital culture, popular culture, sustainable design, and performance. By addressing concerns for 21st century artists, art educators, industrial designers, museum designers and practitioners, students gain an understanding of the concepts, objects, and practices that comprise contemporary visual culture, and learn how these ideas may be applied to their concurrent graduate research, writing, and studio practice.
GRID 605—Design Studio II
3 credits
This design studio offers the opportunity to launch individual or group design projects that are not connected to the ongoing industry partnerships. Projects are framed through critical issues, connected to the ongoing industry partnerships, and take into consideration personal interests of the individual student. The primary goal of this course is to increasingly strengthen the student’s ability to engage and advance critical issues through demonstrating and testing design concepts that can lead to products, systems and/or services. Students will be able to gauge their personal strengths and weaknesses, and orient/position themselves for the subsequent summer internship.
Prerequisites GRID*603
GRID 606—Design Methods II
3 credits
As a complement to the Design Studio II course (GRID 605), this course builds on the introduction to the design process, its tools and methods, to further develop the skills and methods in GRID 604 in the previous semester. The course further develops field research methods and principles (e.g. Universal Design, Human Factors) and refines mapping, modeling and presentation techniques. This course also supports students’ portfolio development and self-promotion in order to secure an appropriate internship for the summer.
Prerequisites GRID*604
GRID 506—Cognitive Science of Interaction Design
3 credits
The goal of this course is to address complexity of interaction between human beings and designed systems, environments or objects. This includes a wide range of practical applications—from designing or iPhone apps and interactive installations to designing of “”smart clothes”” and neural interfaces. In the first part of the course students will be introduced to basic concepts and vocabulary of the fields of cognitive science and psychology relating to interaction design. The main topics covered in the course will be cognitive science research findings related to information input and processing theory, perception and cognition, information appliances and interface design. In the second part of the course students will apply their knowledge of cognitive science concepts and human-centered design theory to specific projects assigned to them in collaboration with the main design studio and their personal interest.
GRID 508—Design Research and Synthesis
3 credits
This course is focused on design research as it applies in a human-centered design context. Through readings, presentations, and discussions students learn to distinguish and articulate different research strategies, review methods and ways of making sense of data collected. Making sense of complexity by doing and devising actions based on abductive thinking produce meaningful argument that support decision making and iterative design development. Special emphasis is placed on ethnography, communication theory, and interventions in organizational systems and cultures.
Summer 3 credits
GRID 795—Design Internship
3 credits
A supervised practicum in a cooperating business, consultancy or design firm. The internship represents full-time employment equivalency under the new mentorship of a professional; it provides practical on-site experience, in which the intern is integrated into the professional staff, assuming professional-level responsibilities and experience. A University professor also observes, advises, and assesses the student during the course of the internship.
Fall 18 credits
ELEC XX3—Elective Course(s)
3 credits
Free electives play an important role in the University’s mission of providing a dynamic milieu for creative exploration, innovation, and intellectual investigation, extending the practice and understanding of the arts and the arts profession. They give the student the opportunity to explore subjects beyond those offered or required by the major department and encourage educational autonomy on the student’s part.
An elective is defined as any studio or liberal arts course that is neither a requirement for the student’s major nor a requirement for the University’s liberal arts core. Electives are courses that a student can choose freely without restriction. While advisors may make recommendations regarding electives, the final choice for elective courses must rest with the student. Obviously, prerequisites and corequisites apply to any course that a student may elect to take.
GRID 501—Business Planning and Practices
3 credits
Based on the principles of human-center design, this course introduces students in the arts and media to the principles of business—idea development, marketing, finances, and presentation skills—and develops competencies in strategic thinking problem solving, goal setting, time management, presentation skills, business writing, and financial literacy. Over the course of the semester students research, develop and prototype their ideas forming them into viable ventures. The course also introduces students to the various organizational structures used in business—small and large, start-up and established. The course culminates with public presentations and judging with the best proposals being eligible for a venture grant or participation in a summer incubator program.
GRID 703—Advanced Design Studio
6 credits
This studio is structured around collaborations with businesses, for- and not-for-profit organizations and community. Projects focus on organizational development, service design and design for user-experience. Studio teams combine first and second year MID students. As first-year students are introduced to human centered design process and methodology, second year students take on a leadership role as team managers and facilitators. There is a strong emphasis on design research and synthesis, clear and highly visual communication, and the prototyping and iteration of design concepts based on user input and feed-back. The development of design skills and studio practice is additionally supported through Design Methods I and II (GRID604 and GRID704).
GRID 704—Advanced Design Methods
3 credits
Building on the design methods classes offered during the first year, the laboratory offers a series of tutorials in order to round out students’ particular skill sets. This course will further support professional networking through development of student’s portfolio websites and other outreach projects.
Prerequisites GRID*606
GRID 711—ID Seminar: Professional Development
3 credits
A professional seminar that addresses the individual career interests of each degree candidate especially as they relate to the student’s thesis project. The product of this course is the formulation of a career plan and objectives tailored to each candidate, and the further development of a portfolio, resume, and other documentation targeted toward the practical application of the candidate’s knowledge and skill.
Spring 12 credits
GRID 712—Design Entrepreneurship
3 credits
This course will help students to develop the tools that take ideas from inception to business plan, to put their ideas into idioms that make sense to industry, and to create the viable means for connecting new product and service development to sustainable outcomes. This course will explore new business incubation, microbusiness practices, emerging models of design consultancies, and, practices of innovation in a global economy.
GRID 721—Masters Thesis Project
6 credits
A tutorial providing the opportunity for individual candidates to shape and present the outcome of their programs of study in a manner that directly reflects their career objectives. Projects may be carried out independently, under industry sponsorship, or as part of a research project, based on a plan produced and approved through the thesis director.
GRID 722—Master’s Thesis Documentation
3 credits
A tutorial providing the opportunity for individual candidates to develop and present their thesis in a manner that directly reflects their career objectives. The thesis project and document must exhibit an in-depth exploration of an approved topic, which addresses an area of importance to the Industrial Design field and contributes to the body of knowledge pertaining to that area. It may be carried out under industry sponsorship, as a part of a research project, or be independently based.