In 2019 UAL declared a Climate Emergency and pledged to ‘make sustainability a required part of the student learning experience’. In response to the climate and ecological crisis the Design School set in place an ambitious Sustainability Action Plan to fully embed responsible practices within the curriculum and in everything we do. As part of this initiative we have updated our course handbooks against a set of social and environmental sustainability principles to ensure that learning outcomes reflect the urgent need to equip students with the understanding, skills and values to foster a more sustainable planet. Our aim is to change the way students think and to empower them to work towards a sustainable future. 

In common with all courses at the University of the Arts London, this course is credit rated. The course is 3 years, levels 4-6. Each year requires you to achieve 120 credit points. To be awarded the BA (Hons) Interaction Design Arts qualification, you need to accumulate a total of 360 credits. 

Year 1

Introduction to Interaction Design Arts (20 credits) 

Through academic reflection, writing and practical workshops, this unit will equip you with essential skills that will give you the confidence to navigate through the course and College and to help you begin to develop a personal approach to your work.

Exploration and Play (40 credits) 

​​Focuses on learning and discovery through practical activities and projects. It introduces core design principles and explores play as a method of research, experimentation and design.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies 1 (20 credits) 

Through academic writing, lectures and seminars, this unit introduces you to histories, theories and debates in relation to information and interface design and visual and material culture.

High Tech, Low Tech, No Tech (40 credits) 

Introduces you to design through materials, prototypes and diegetics. This media-agnostic unit invites you to consider technologically and materially appropriate design solutions to studio projects.

Year 2

Desire Lines and Affordance (40 credits) 

​This unit is intensive and designed to introduce you to subject specific processes and techniques involved in interaction and design. It deals with design in the lived environment; how people and users interact with the world around them and encourages you to reach beyond the studio for research and inspiration.

Contextual and Theoretical Studies 2 (20 credits) 

Through academic writing, lectures and seminars in this unit, you will have the opportunity to further contextualise various aspects of art and design theory in its broadest sense, by focusing on specific options.

Professional Practices (20 credits) 

​This unit seeks to extend your knowledge of the creative, cultural and design industries, providing you with opportunities to work on live project as you continue to develop your design practice in mixed-discipline and collaborative teams.

Expanded Cinema and Physical Computing (40 credits) 

This unit is designed to further aid and develop the work and concepts introduced in the previous unit. The unit encourages you to experiment and push new media and technologies to their limits. The unit is also highly spatial and technical, looking at programming, sensors and computing in a real-world context.

Diploma in Professional Studies

The Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS) is an optional year-long learning opportunity, allowing you to undertake a variety of internships and professional experiences for a whole academic year in Year 3, as part of a four-year degree. It is a managed year of professional experience largely undertaken in the design profession in a variety of national and international locations.

Successful candidates are selected on a competitive basis from academic performance and studentship, successful completion of the DPS bridging studies and by portfolio and proposal.

Year 3

Route A:

• Major Studio Project (60 credits) 

The Major Studio Project is undertaken by all third year students and generally consists of three individual briefs, which you chose. It is the culmination of the course and provides you with the opportunity to utilise all of your practical, critical and analytical skills in the realisation of projects related to the development of your individual portfolio.

• Minor Studio Project (20 credits) 

The Minor Studio Project is self-initiated; emphasising research and the identification of appropriate intellectual and practical methodologies to support your outcomes.

• Contextual and Theoretical Studies 3 (40 credits) 

This unit is the culmination of the Contextual and Theoretical Studies component of the course. It provides you with the opportunity to utilise all your knowledge and analytical skills related to visual theory, in the realisation of a self-determined extended piece of writing of 8,000-10,000 words.

or Route B:

• Major Studio Project (60 credits) 

The Major Studio Project is undertaken by all third year students and generally consists of three individual briefs, which you chose. It is the culmination of the course and provides you with the opportunity to utilise all your practical, critical and analytical skills in the realisation of projects related to the development of your individual portfolio.

• Minor Studio Project (20 credits) x2 

The Minor Studio Project is self-initiated; emphasising research and the identification of appropriate intellectual and practical methodologies to support your outcomes. One Minor Studio Project is undertaken by all third year students. If you decide to do the Route B (CTS 3 unit of 5000 words instead of 10000), you will do two of these Minor Studio Projects.

• Contextual and Theoretical Studies 3 (20 credits) 

This unit is the culmination of the Contextual and Theoretical Studies component of the course, and provides you with the opportunity to utilise all your knowledge and analytical skills related to visual theory in the realisation of a self-determined extended piece of writing of 4,000-5,000 words.