Content and structure

Course content.

Course content.
Students research, design and implement the requirements that enable interaction between people, environments and objects – while considering social, experience-oriented and ecologically-relevant aspects. Students also acquire the requisite design and technological skills. Using a variety of methods and skills, they develop concepts that they evaluate, communicate effectively and bring to life in the form of prototypes.

Thanks to user-oriented, participative approaches, students develop an understanding of User Experience, 2D and 3D media and time-based interaction. Students also learn the skill of methodological observation, how to analyse behavioural patterns and communicate design concepts, and the basics of programming, electronics, robotics and artificial intelligence. 

Course structure.

Interaction design basics

Students acquire basic design, craft and technical skills: 2D visual design, 3D object/experience design, audiovisual design, programming, physical computing. 

People-centred design

On the basis of holistic product and service developments, students learn and apply user-centred methods: ethnographic field research, participatory design, bodystorming, prototyping, video scenarios, wire framing, user testing, etc. 

Aesthetic exploration

Students conduct research into the conception, drafting and prototypical implementation of interactive data visualizations, temporary spatial interventions and human-robot interactions. 

Space and services

Students develop holistic interaction experiences, which they then make tangible in the form of prototypes and video in space. 

Embodied and situated interactions

Physical, multisensorial interfaces and visual mobile interfaces are developed while taking different aspects into consideration.

Theory and context

The major-specific content is supplemented with a department-wide range of courses. Excursions are organized to get to know all the different aspects that make up everyday working life. 

Practical work with other majors 

Learn how to act and work in interdisciplinary design teams. Students formulate and implement joint ideas on a current issue, learn how to communicate design processes, and get across their understanding of design in discussions with others. 

Graduation project

Write a thesis and complete a creative-practical graduation project in the form of a prototype. Support is provided in the form of mentoring sessions.

Skills acquired in the course.

  • Conceive, design and implement digital interfaces, services as well as interactive objects and spaces in the form of prototypes
  • Develop projects from the perspective of people and societies and implement them with UX, ethnographic and participative design methods.
  • Analyse project contexts and user requirements precisely and select and use relevant approaches
  • Develop solutions in the form of comprehensive concepts and communicate them effectively
  • Successfully implement interaction concepts in agency, industrial, research or exhibition contexts in design and technological terms.
  • Mediate between design and technology in interdisciplinary projects
  • Think critically and implement socially relevant ideas in design projects

Admissions requirements.

You stand out due to your creativity and curiosity and basic technical knowledge. You are interested in graphic, product or interface design, physical computing, programming, web and mobile user experience, information visualization or the installative, artistic field.

  • You are a skilled designer
  • You are interested in technology and programming
  • You are able to think holistically
  • You are able to grasp and visualize complex systems
  • You are able to entertain different perspectives

Benefits of studying at ZHdK.

Students benefit from the research activities of ZHdK in the Embodied Interaction and Interactive Experience fields – and have access to a complete infrastructure for their work.

  • Physical Computing Lab
  • Immersive Experience Lab
  • Material research archive

The major in Interaction Design provides graduates with many opportunities and access to a wide range of professional fields. This spectrum is continuously expanding in line with the technological development. 

Studying at ZHdK offers you a wealth of benefits.

  • Take your future in hand: You enjoy a contemporary, interdisciplinary, highly specialized education. 
  • You have access to the Toni Campus. This centre for education and culture combines all disciplines under one roof and is unparalleled in its dimensions anywhere in Europe. 
  • ZHdK regularly puts on projects and events. 
  • You benefit from professional networks and collaborations with the creative industry and other educational institutions in Switzerland and abroad.