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Postgraduate

MA User Experience Design


College
London College of Communication
Start date
September 2024
Course length
1 year 3 months full-time (45 weeks across a four-term model)

This professionally focused, design-led course will equip you with the specialist skills to conceive, prototype and produce human-centred experiences in an interactive digital context.

Applying for more than 1 course

You can apply for more than 1 postgraduate course at UAL but we recommend that you apply for no more than 3. Find out more in the Apply Now section.

Why choose this course at London College of Communication

  • Industry Engaged: This MA is highly engaged with UX industry practice and the future of UX as a professional discipline. You’ll benefit from live UX briefs, studio visits and partnership with leading London UX industry professional and studios such as ustwo , Made by Many and AKQA.
  • Design led UX: The course puts studio practice at the centre of what students do. Supported by the community of practice at LCC and grounded in a critical awareness of design methods and processes, you can expect to be designing new digital experiences from the start.
  • Interdisciplinary: In the professional design world, UX designers perform many different tasks and are expected to have skills in research, interaction design, product prototyping, concept development and evaluation. This constellation of skills means the course delivers technical and critical training at an advanced level, in a highly interdisciplinary context.
  • Skills: Key to building the expertise of a UX designer is a working understanding of industry standard UX prototyping tools, alongside user research methods that inform designs. You will learn practical skills alongside theoretical, within a critical framework, to become a discerning and conscious designer.

Open Evenings

The next Open Evening for this course will be announced soon.

Course overview

On this industry focused and design-led course, you'll learn how compelling user experiences are designed, tested, and evaluated.

The course covers the advanced studio skills of user experience design, including the methods and practices of user research through the critical-theoretical background.

What can you expect?

You'll gain knowledge of the relevant tools, materials and practices that make up user experience design in the context of the community of practice represented by London College of Communication.

With a focus on design for complex systems, emerging technologies and integrated experiences, you’ll develop an informed approach which builds on a foundation of graphic, communication and interface design values through open inquiry and creative risk-taking.

Work experience and opportunities

The methods and tools of user research are emphasised throughout and you will be challenged to collaborate on live industry briefs covering varied topics such as UX for wearable technologies, smart cities, data visualisation and social transformation.

The course is intended for people who have completed an undergraduate degree in design, social sciences, digital technologies, media and communications, and associated degrees.

We also anticipate that applicants will be working designers wishing to deepen their practice and develop new opportunities.

Mode of Study

MA User Experience Design is in Full Time mode which runs for 45 weeks over 15 months. You will be expected to commit 40 hours per week to study.

Course units

We are committed to ensuring that your skills are set within an ethical framework, and we have worked to embed UAL’s Principles for Climate, Racial and Social Justice Principles into the curriculum and in everything we do.

As part of this initiative, we’ve shaped our courses around social and environmental sustainability principles that ensure learning outcomes reflect the urgent need to equip you with the understanding, skills, and values to foster a more sustainable planet.  Our aim is to change the way our students think, and to empower you to work towards a sustainable future. 

Autumn, Term 1

UX Studio Practices (40 credits)

This unit aims to provide you with a critical understanding of user experience design in the context of contemporary studio practice.

It will help you position your approach to the subject relative to the current theoretical ideas and working practices of user experience design.

You will also develop a critical awareness of how physical, personal and social contexts shape design processes.

Spring, Term 2

Macro UX (20 credits)
Collaborative Unit (20 credits)

The Macro UX unit involves working with an external partner on live briefs. You can choose to work with industry or third sector organisations around a set of broad themes including; UX for smart city technologies, UX for cultural placemaking, UX for the future of publishing and UX for archives and collections.

The Collaborative Unit is designed to enable you to identify, form and develop collaborative working relationships with a range of potential partners. These could be: postgraduate student colleagues at the college or university level; postgraduate students at other Higher Education Institutions; external parties (e.g. companies, cultural organisations, community-based groups, NGOs, charities etc.)

Summer, Term 3

Micro UX (40 credits)

This unit is intended to allow you to work with a different external organisation, exposing your evolving practice to different views and alternative methods.

Collaborations are organised around broad themes including; UX for health and wellbeing, UX for data visualisation, UX for human-robot relations, and UX for performance and public participation.

You will be expected to initiate and implement a UX design project around two of these themes, drawing on the research journey you devised and the design process you established in Macro UX.

Autumn, Term 4

Final Major Project and Portfolio of Writing (60 credits)

The aims of the Final Major Project and Critical Context Report are to offer you the opportunity to engage in a major research-led project in which the emphasis will be on defining, analysing and developing an individual and focused approach to user experience design.

Learning and teaching methods

  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Workshops
  • Guest speakers
  • Group and individual tutorials 

Course videos

Online Open Day

Alaistair Steele, gives an overview of studying MA User Experience Design at London College of Communication.

Graduate showcase

Explore work by our recent students on the UAL Showcase

Student work

  • Erick-Montenegro.jpg
    Erick Montenegro, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Fei-Liang.jpg
    Fei Liang, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Hugh-Allen.png
    Hugh Allen, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Jialuo-Chen.gif
    Jialuo Chen, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • mengjiao-huang.jpg
    Mengjiao Huang, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Tanvi-Kulkarni.jpg
    Tanvi Kulkarni, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Tonicha-Child.jpg
    Tonicha Child, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Wing-Yan-Wong.jpg
    Wing Yan Wong, 2020. MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA User Experience Design, London College of Communication, UAL

Course films

Symposium: Mushon Zer-Aviv & Dr Maya Indira-Ganesh: Systems, processes and meanings

Staff and students from MA User Experience Design host a series of online conversations with leading designers, academics and thinkers which discuss the radical design imaginary and its place in a dematerialising digital world.

Symposium: Assoc. Prof Laura Forlano and Dr Dan Lockton: Materialising experience

This symposium brings together important global voices in a series of dialogues that explore the outer reaches of the discipline.

Student voices: Nayla Fayoumi

Nayla speaks about her final year project, Craft, a platform that enables employees to shape their job accordingly to their skills and interests.

Student voices: Wan Li

Wan Li tells us about her collaborative and multi-sensory final piece.

Course stories

Facilities

  • A close-up of the moveable type available in the Letterpress area.
    Image © Lewis Bush

    Printing and Finishing

    Discover our printing techniques, from Lithographic Printing to Print Finishing and Bookbinding.

  • Student reading a book in between two bookshelves in the Library
    Students in the Digital Space. London College of Communication, UAL. Photograph: Alys Tomlinson

    The Digital Space

    The Digital Space is an open-plan, creative hub with computers set up with specialist software.

  • Students using the computers in the Digital Space
    Student in Creative Technology Lab, 2020. London College of Communication, UAL. Photograph: Tim Boddy

    Creative Technology Lab

    A multi-purpose space that supports students with: Creative Coding, Physical Computing, Projection Mapping, Games, and Virtual Reality.

Staff

Fees and funding

Home fee

£13,330

This fee is correct for 2024/25 entry and is subject to change for 2025/26 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Students from countries outside of the UK will generally be charged international fees. The rules are complex so read more about tuition fees and determining your fee status.

International fee

£28,570

This fee is correct for 2024/25 entry and is subject to change for 2025/26 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Students from countries outside of the UK will generally be charged international fees. The rules are complex so read more about tuition fees and determining your fee status.

Scholarship search

Entry requirements

The course team welcomes applications from open and inquiring minds of all kinds. Applicants interested in deepening their practice to include user research and in pursuing further study as a way of developing a valuable professional qualification. Students open to learning in a new collaborative and critical way, eager to ground their work in real-world research and be willing to take creative risks and make mistakes along the way.

Applicants will have a portfolio of digital design work that demonstrates awareness of the creative and critical aspects of UX design and may also be returning from adjacent careers in the design industry such as graphic design, information design or interaction design.

The course attracts applicants from a broad range of backgrounds, from all over the world, from an Honours degree course in a subject such as:

  • Graphic Design
  • Interaction Design
  • Interactive Media Design
  • Web Design
  • Communication Design
  • Computer Science
  • Digital Design
  • Product Design
  • Anthropology
  • Sociology
  • Or those with other, equivalent qualifications.

The course team also welcomes students with relevant experience or those who may have previously worked in the industry, or non-traditional backgrounds, as well as those already within employment. The course has been designed to accommodate flexibility in educational engagement. Your experience is assessed as a learning process and tutors will evaluate that experience for currency, validity, quality and sufficiency.

The educational level may be demonstrated by:

  • Honours degree (named above);
  • Possession of equivalent qualifications;
  • Prior experiential learning, the outcome of which can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required.

APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning)

Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered in exceptional cases. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:

  • Related academic or work experience
  • The quality of the personal statement
  • A strong academic or other professional reference
  • OR a combination of these factors

Each application will be considered on its own merit but we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.

Language Requirements (International/EU)

All classes are conducted in English. If English is not your first language, we strongly recommend you let us know your English language test score in your application. If you have booked a test or are awaiting your results, please indicate this in your application. When asked to upload a CV as part of your application, please include any information about your English test score.

  • IELTS 6.5 (or equivalent), with 6.0 in each of the four skills.
  • If your first language is not English, you can check you have achieved the correct IELTS level in English on the Language Requirements page.
  • For further details regarding international admissions and advice please visit the International Applications page.

Selection criteria

Offers will be made based on the following selection criteria, which applicants are expected to demonstrate:

  • Sufficient prior knowledge and experience of and/or potential in a specialist subject area to be able to successfully complete the programme of study and have an academic or professional background in a relevant subject.
  • Critical knowledge of and enthusiasm for the subject area and capacity for research-led design, intellectual inquiry and reflective thought through: contextual awareness (professional, cultural, social, historical); evidence of research, analysis, development and evaluation (from previous academic study and employment) and a grounded understanding of the world of sonic, visual and networked culture and be able to engage in and contribute to critical discussion.
  • In the project proposal a description of the area of interest, field of study and the particular focus of their intended project. This should include an overview of how you intend to go about producing the project and the methodology.
  • The portfolio should be conceptual and research-based, you must show your thinking and making process and a curious nature to explore, test and experiment.
  • A willingness to work in the physical realm with networked digital systems and in areas of design research and practice that challenges preconceptions.
  • A willingness to work with networked digital systems and an awareness of how they shape the varied contexts of human behaviour.
  • Also to show a willingness to work as a team player, good language skills in reading, writing and speaking, the ability to work independently and be self-motivated.

Apply now

Application deadline

Deadline

Round 1:

13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)

Round 2:

3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

Digital portfolio and video task deadline

Round 1:

16 January 2024

Round 2:

16 April 2024

Decision outcome

Round 1:

End of March 2024

Round 2:

End of June 2024

Round 1
Round 2
Deadline
13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)
3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)
Digital portfolio and video task deadline
16 January 2024
16 April 2024
Decision outcome
End of March 2024
End of June 2024

All applications received by 3 April will be treated equally. If there are places available after this date, the course will remain open to applications until places have been filled.

Read more about deadlines

Apply now

Application deadline

Deadline

Round 1:

13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)

Round 2:

3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

Digital portfolio and video task deadline

Round 1:

16 January 2024

Round 2:

16 April 2024

Decision outcome

Round 1:

End of March 2024

Round 2:

End of June 2024

Round 1
Round 2
Deadline
13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)
3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)
Digital portfolio and video task deadline
16 January 2024
16 April 2024
Decision outcome
End of March 2024
End of June 2024

All applications received by 3 April will be treated equally. If there are places available after this date, the course will remain open to applications until places have been filled.

Read more about deadlines

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How to apply

Follow this step-by-step guide to apply for this course

Step 1: Initial application

You will need to submit an initial application including your personal statement, CV and study proposal.

Personal statement advice

Your personal statement should be maximum 500 words and include:

  • your reasons for choosing the course
  • your current creative practice and how this course will help you achieve your future plans
  • any relevant education and experience, especially if you do not have any formal academic qualifications.

Visit our personal statement page for more advice.

CV advice

Please provide a CV detailing your education, qualifications and any relevant work or voluntary experience. If you have any web projects or other media that you would like to share, please include links in your CV. If English is not your first language, please also include your most recent English language test score.

Study proposal advice

Please provide a summary of your study proposal (300-500 words).

It should include:

  • a description of the area of interest, field of study and the particular focus of your intended project
  • an overview of how you intend to produce the project and the methodology
  • any references and a bibliography if necessary (not included in the word count).

Please note, your proposal serves to inform your application and we understand that your ideas will develop and change throughout your studies.

Step 2: Video task and digital portfolio

We will review your initial application. If you have met the standard entry requirements, we will ask you to submit a video task and digital portfolio.

You’ll need to submit these via PebblePad, our online portfolio tool. Please submit your video task on the first page followed by your portfolio.

Video task advice

We would like you to submit a 2-3 minute video to help us learn more about you. When recording your task, please face the camera and speak in English.

What to include in your video task

  • Choose 1 project from your portfolio and explain how it challenged you and your understanding of user experience design.
  • Tell us how this experience inspired you to apply to MA User Experience Design at London College of Communication.

Read our guidance for how to submit your video task and which file types we accept.

Digital portfolio advice

Your portfolio should consist of recent work that reflects your creative strengths.

It should:

  • be maximum of 20 pages, including your video task
  • feature work from up to 5 projects
  • include short descriptions of each project, explaining the motivation, development, realisation and impact. If any were group projects, please explain your role and contribution.
  • include examples of developmental work, sketches, tests and process-led experimentation
  • include, for those from a non-design background, research based around a relevant topic. Please include an explanation of your research, outcomes and impact.
  • demonstrate your aptitude, skills and engagement in user experience design or a related field.

For more support, see our Portfolio advice and PebblePad advice.

Step 3: Interview

You may be invited to an interview following our review of your application. All interviews are held online and last 15 to 20 minutes.

For top tips, see our Interview advice.

You also need to know

Communicating with you

Once you have submitted your initial application, we will email you with your login details for our Applicant portal.

Requests for supplementary documents like qualifications and English language tests will be made through the applicant portal. You can also use it to ask questions regarding your application. Visit our After you apply page for more information.

Applying to more than 1 course

You can apply for more than 1 postgraduate course at UAL but we recommend that you apply for no more than 3 courses. You need to tailor your application, supporting documents and portfolio to each course, so applying for many different courses could risk the overall quality of your application. If you receive offers for multiple courses, you'll only be able to accept 1 offer. UAL doesn't accept repeat applications to the same course in the same academic year.

Visas and immigration history check

All non-UK nationals must complete an immigration history check. Your application may be considered by our course teams before this check takes place. This means that we may request your portfolio and/or video task before we identify any issues arising from your immigration history check. Sometimes your history may mean that we are not able to continue considering your application. Visit our Immigration and visas advice page for more information.

External student transfer policy

UAL accepts transfers from other institutions on a case-by-case basis. Read our Student transfer policy for more information.

Alternative offers

If your application is really strong, but we believe your strengths and skillset are better suited to a different course, we may make you an alternative offer. This means you will be offered a place on a different course or at a different UAL College.

Deferring your place

We do not accept any deferral requests for our postgraduate courses. This means that you must apply in the year that you plan to start your course and you will not be able to defer your place to start at a later date.

Application deadlines

For postgraduate courses at UAL there are 2 equal consideration deadlines to ensure fairness for all our applicants. If you apply ahead of either of these deadlines, your application will be considered on an equal basis with all other applications in that round. If there are places available after the second deadline, the course will remain open to applications until places have been filled.

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