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Postgraduate

MA Interaction Design


College
London College of Communication Start date
September 2025 Course length
12 months

MA Interaction Design will prepare you to thrive in a dynamic and technology-driven design landscape. You'll cultivate critical and conceptual skills to engage with audiences through transformative practices in futures, critical design and post-internet art, fostering creativity in a transdisciplinary framework.

Course summary

Apply to start in September 2025

This course has places available for UK applicants only. We are no longer accepting applications from international students for 2025/26 entry to this course. International applications for 2026/27 entry will open in autumn 2025.

Applying for more than 1 course

From October 2024, you can only apply for a maximum of 3 postgraduate courses each year at UAL (excluding online or low-residency courses and Graduate Diplomas). Find out more in the Apply Now section.

Why choose this course at London College of Communication

  • Maker-thinker mindset: You’ll understand research and practice as a continuous dialogue. This will expand past traditional boundaries to engage with diverse ideas from critical technology studies, contemporary philosophy, decolonial design and media art theory.
  • New and experimental practices: Use a range of technologies, media, and creative approaches driven by your own interests including performance, net-art, poetry, installation, film-making and more.
  • Cultural partners and experience: You’ll have the option to exhibit and collaborate with internationally-renowned arts and cultural partners. Previous partnerships include the鈥�, the鈥�, the and   Festival in Austria.
  • Expert support: Alongside the substantial resources of the College and individualised specialist technical support, you’ll have access to our programme of regular guest lectures and workshops from international artists, designers and researchers.
  • Graduate destinations: Graduates have gone on to work for companies such as , , and in independent design studios worldwide, as well as attending artist residencies, undertaking PhD study and teaching at UAL and other leading arts universities.
  • Design School community: You’ll join the active Postgraduate Community at UAL, where you’ll have access to exclusive opportunities to promote your work and celebrate your success. You’ll leave with the capacity to tackle pressing injustices in the face of the climate emergency.

Open Events

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

Course overview

MA Interaction Design provides an opportunity for experimental and interdisciplinary practice. You'll  explore contemporary issues around digital and networked technologies and their intersection with the anthropocene, climate crisis, and social and economic inequality.

What to expect

  • Creative, and experimental practice: Using new technologies, you’ll engage and provoke audiences through contemporary issues such as digital privacy, the Climate Crisis, and social and economic inequality.
  • Innovation: We define interaction design as the practice of making objects, spaces, and experiences that instigate new relations with humans, environments, and the systems revolving around them. Through this, we find new ways to provoke imagination, discussion, and critique.
  • Critical thinking: Our integrated approach to critical thinking will enable you to work with critical ideas in an applied design context while encouraging you to develop your own voice as a critical practitioner.
  • Practical skills: You’ll develop skills in interaction design, physical computing, creative coding, and other new and traditional media forms. You’ll also build research skills in areas such as critical design, post-human centred design, feminist and decolonial theory, speculative design, and critical data studies. You’ll combine these methodologies and ideas into new and unique forms of practice.

Industry experience and opportunities

The course places you in a position to work across the broad spectrum of interaction and design, with transferable skills in creativity, complexity, criticality, strategic thinking, and technical understanding.

When you graduate, you’ll be prepared to work independently or as part of a studio/company in a range of roles such as international digital artist or designer, creative technologist, or researcher in a range of fields.

You’ll learn skills for conducting rigorous, practice-based research. You’ll use design to question the world around you, which means that you'll also be prepared for further design research at PhD-level internationally.

Mode of study

MA Interaction Design is in Full Time mode which runs for 45 weeks over 12 months. You will be expected to commit 40 hours per week to study.

Contact us

to receive information and updates about studying at UAL.

Contact us to make an enquiry.

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 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.

Each course is divided into units, which are credit-rated. The minimum unit size is 20 credits. The MA course structure involves 5 units, totalling 180 credits.

Autumn, block 1 

Block 1 of the course introduces you to the theories and concepts that are core to the course’s research-led and critical form of Interaction Design. 

Theories and Practices of Interaction Design (40 credits)

You’ll develop a critical understanding of interaction design and its relevance to current theoretical, social and cultural contexts. Through a seminar series you’ll be introduced to both historical and contemporary theories, as well as practices drawn from the worlds of art and design, giving you an understanding of the research context for the course. 

You’ll produce and reflect on a series of individual and group practical projects that engage with social, cultural and political concerns, drawing from you own perspective and context. Through this, you will develop a considered framing for your practice throughout the course and beyond. 

Spring, block 2 

Block 2 offers you the opportunity to engage further with your critical practice to produce research-led and experimental interaction design projects. 

Collaborative Unit (20 credits)

You’ll complete a group studio project in response to a brief from an external partner. Previous partnerships have been with organisations such as the V&A, the Design Museum, and BBC Research and Development. Alongside brief-specific content, you will be supported by seminars on organisation and working methods, expanding your approaches to working in a contemporary interaction design context.

Explorative Practice (40 credits) 

This unit will give you the option to choose between distinct electives to pursue your own thematic path in the field of interaction design. You will explore new practices and methods to develop your skill-set and allow you to produce an innovative project that applies your in-depth research to the practical context of interaction design.

Summer, block 3 

Block 3 offers you the opportunity to use both the critical and technical skills gained in block 1, alongside the research and development skills you developed in block 2, to produce a new work of interaction design that is creatively and technically ambitious and underpinned by in-depth critical research. You will be supported in reflecting on the place and impact of this practice on the wider world. 

Masters Project (60 credits)
Weighted 50% research component and 50% practical component

You will undertake a Masters Project which relates to the expanded field of design and interaction developing your own research domain and specialism for your work. You will use broad theoretical models and practical skills spanning multiple disciplines to actively develop and produce a critically aware major project. You will reflect on this project’s capacity and potential in the world, and for an audience, and contextualise it within your future aims for your practice.

Examples of Masters Projects

  • BE IN LAND_SCAPE (Yili Zhao) A reflection on how we perceive industrial landscapes and exploration of the connection between material, memories, and these landscapes. 
  • Into the Ethereal (Nella Piatek) Divided into three chapters a film that poses questions regarding physical and digital traces, haunted objects, and eternal memory. 
  • Nepenthe (Mariana Marangoni) An interactive fiction that depects the Cesium-137 incident in 1987 which happened in Brazil. It was the second worst radioactive incident globally, excluding power plants. However, the government tried to hide information about it. 

If you are unable to continue or decide to exit the course, there are two possible exit awards. A Postgraduate Certificate will be awarded on successful completion of the first 60 credits and a Postgraduate Diploma will be awarded on successful completion of the first 120 credits.

Programme specification

Download course specification (PDF File 373.3 KB)

Learning and teaching methods

  • Lectures and group learning
  • Workshop and seminar learning
  • Academic tutorials
  • Self-directed learning
  • Outside speakers and visits
  • Assessed assignments

Assessment methods

  • Practical project work
  • Prepared writing i.e. academic reports, essays etc.
  • Responses to case studies
  • Oral presentations
  • Personal presentations of prepared work
  • Workshop based activities
  • Written research projects
  • The creation of a portfolio of work

UAL Showcase

Explore work by our recent students on the UAL Showcase

  • String in a Machine
    String in a Machine, Han Bao, 2023 MA Interaction Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Pipe Dreams
    Pipe Dreams, Olivia Burgess, 2023 MA Interaction Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • SANCITY (Data Obelisk)
    SANCITY (Data Obelisk), Lok Yin Pang, 2023 MA Interaction Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • The Heightened Horizons
    The Heightened Horizons, Ayushi Chandani, 2023 MA Interaction Design, London College of Communication, UAL

Student work

  • Mariana-Marangoni.jpg
    Mariana Marangoni, 2020. MA Interaction Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA Interaction Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Michael-Sedbon-Alt-C-2018.jpg
    Michael Sedbon, 2018. MA Interaction Design Communication, London College of Communication, UAL.
  • Ziwei-Wang-Dreama-2019.png
    Ziwei Wang, 2019. MA Interaction Design Communication, London College of Communication, UAL.

Student videos

Into the Ethereal

Nella Piatek

Tell-Tale Atom Heart

Mat Denney

See My Gender,

Qingyi Ren

Student voices

Qingyi Ren

Quingyi project, In Between, looks at facial recognition software and how this intersects with ideas of gender and the performance of gender.

Mariana Marangoni

Mariana's final project looks at the Internet as a ruin.

Jiawen Zhao

Jiawen tells us about Ying, her final year work about our need for certainty.

Mich Tsai

Mich's final project is an as immersive spinal installation exploring the relationship between the body, spine and physical pain.

Instagram

Stories

Facilities

  • Student soldering in the Creative Technology Lab
    Student in Creative Technology Lab, 2020. London College of Communication, UAL. Photograph: Tim Boddy

    3D Workshop

    Learn to work with a range of tools and technologies from traditional woodworking to digital fabrication.

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

    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

Associate Lecturers

  • Fees and funding

    Home fee

    £14,000

    This fee is correct for 2025/26 entry and is subject to change for 2026/27 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

    £29,990

    This fee is correct for 2025/26 entry and is subject to change for 2026/27 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.

    Additional costs

    You may need to cover additional costs which are not included in your tuition fees, such as materials and equipment specific to your course. For a list of general digital equipment you may need (and how you can borrow equipment), visit our Study costs page.

    Accommodation

    Find out about accommodation options and how much they will cost, and other living expenses you’ll need to consider.

    Scholarships, bursaries and awards

    If you’ve completed a qualifying course at UAL, you may be eligible for a tuition fee discount on this course. Find out more about our Progression discount.

    You can also find out more about the Postgraduate Masters Loan (Home students only) and scholarships, including 拢7,000 scholarships for Home and International students. Discover more about student funding.

    If you’re based in the UK and plan to visit UAL for an Open Event, check if you’re eligible for our UAL Travel Bursary. This covers the costs of mainland train or airline travel to visit UAL.

    How to pay

    Find out how you can pay your tuition fees.

    Scholarship search

    Or view all

    Entry requirements

    MA Interaction Design has a particular aim to appeal to communication designers who are interested in exploring these new and emerging areas of design practice.

    The course seeks students who have a critical understand of how technologies and digital culture are affecting design practices, and who are keen to work with network digital systems and in areas of design research and practice that challenge preconceptions.

    Although not an entry requirement, you should be comfortable with some basic coding (some i.e. HTML CSS) in order to communicate ideas with colleagues, although strong creative experience in this area is an advantage. We will introduce you to various coding languages and design prototyping platforms during the course, but expect that individuals will develop their skills base within specific project work.

    The course team welcomes applicants from a broad range of backgrounds, from all over the world. MA Interaction Design attracts students who apply direct from an Honours degree course in a field relevant to graphic design, or those with other, equivalent qualifications.

    The course team also welcomes students with relevant experience or those who may have previously worked in industry.

    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. Your experience is assessed as a learning process and tutors will evaluate that experience for currency, validity, quality and sufficiency;
    • Or a combination of formal qualifications and experiential learning which, taken together, can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required.

    APEL (Accreditation of Prior 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

    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) is required, with a minimum of 5.5 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.
    • 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.
    • 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 the ability to engage in and contribute to critical discussion.
    • 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.

    Information for disabled applicants

    UAL is committed to achieving inclusion and equality for disabled students. This includes students who have:

       
    • Dyslexia or another Specific Learning Difference
    • A sensory impairment
    • A physical impairment
    • A long-term health or mental health condition
    • Autism
    • Another long-term condition which has an impact on your day-to-day life

    Our Disability Service arranges adjustments and support for disabled applicants and students.

    Read our Disability and dyslexia: applying for a course and joining UAL information.

    Apply now

    Application deadline

    Deadline

    Round 1:

    10 December 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

    Round 2:

    26 March 2025 at 1pm (UK time)

    Digital portfolio and video task deadline

    Round 1:

    8 January 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)

    Round 2:

    9 April 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)

    Decision outcome

    Round 1:

    21 March 2025

    Round 2:

    20 June 2025

    Round 1
    Round 2
    Deadline
    10 December 2024 at 1pm (UK time)
    26 March 2025 at 1pm (UK time)
    Digital portfolio and video task deadline
    8 January 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)
    9 April 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)
    Decision outcome
    21 March 2025
    20 June 2025

    This course is still open to applications from UK students and will remain open until all places are filled.

    Read more about deadlines

    Apply to UAL

    Apply now

    Application deadline

    Deadline

    Round 1:

    10 December 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

    Round 2:

    26 March 2025 at 1pm (UK time)

    Digital portfolio and video task deadline

    Round 1:

    8 January 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)

    Round 2:

    9 April 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)

    Decision outcome

    Round 1:

    21 March 2025

    Round 2:

    20 June 2025

    Round 1
    Round 2
    Deadline
    10 December 2024 at 1pm (UK time)
    26 March 2025 at 1pm (UK time)
    Digital portfolio and video task deadline
    8 January 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)
    9 April 2025 at 11.59pm (UK time)
    Decision outcome
    21 March 2025
    20 June 2025

    We are no longer accepting applications to this course for 2025/26 entry from international applicants. Applications for 2026/27 entry will open in autumn 2025.

    Read more about deadlines

    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 and CV.

    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.

    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

    • Discuss how you feel your practice is situated in wider political, social or cultural contexts. You can refer to existing work in your portfolio or talk about your intentions for your practice going forwards.

    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 20 pages, including your video task
    • feature work from a maximum of 5 projects
    • demonstrate your knowledge, understanding, skills and engagement in interaction design and/or related fields
    • highlight your intellectual curiosity, open mindedness and commitment to postgraduate study
    • feature examples of your design process to explain how you develop your work from initial ideas to final outcomes.

    Your portfolio will most likely be viewed on a small laptop screen. Please consider the formatting and sizing of the images or any pages containing text to make sure they are easy to read.

    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 .

    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

    From October 2024, you can only apply for a maximum of 3 postgraduate courses each year at UAL. This excludes online or low-residency courses and Graduate Diplomas, which you can apply to in addition to 3 other postgraduate courses.

    If you apply for more than 3 postgraduate courses between October 2024 and August 2025, we won鈥檛 accept the 4th application. It鈥檚 not possible to withdraw an application to replace it with another.

    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.

    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. If your course requires a portfolio and/or video task, we may request these 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

    Most of our postgraduate courses have 2 rounds of deadlines: one in December and one in March.

    As long as you apply ahead of each deadline we will consider your application alongside all the other applications in that round. We always make sure to hold enough places back for round 2 to make sure we can consider your application fairly, no matter which round you apply in.

    If there are still places available after the second deadline, the course will remain open to applications until all places have been filled.

    Careers

    Graduates of the course are equipped to work in an increasingly technologically informed and interdisciplinary design world with real skills in areas such as: interactive art and design, foresight and futures, interdisciplinary studio practice, though leadership, and digital arts.

    A high number of our graduates continue to PhD research and become BA and MA lecturers, shaping the future of their field.  Graduates are often awarded funded opportunities to exhibit their work around the world with work produced on this course.

    Roles and destinations of recent graduates include:

    • Mat Denney – Artist and Lecturer in Emergent Technologies, London College of Communication
    • Eleni Xynologa – Interaction Designer, Red Design Consultants
    • Mariana Marangoni – Artist and Lecturer in Computational Arts, London College of Communication
    • Shuo Wang – Game Interaction Designer, ByteDance
    • Rania Svoronou - Lead visual interaction design, 
    • Qingyi Ren – PhD Researcher in Digital Technology and Gender, University of Linz
    • Anqi Wang – PhD Researcher in Machine Learning, Aalto University
    • Simona Ciocoiu - Interaction Designer, 
    • Masatato Seki - Creative Technologist, 
    • Elliott Hall – Creative Technologist and Support Technician, London College of Fashion

    Some international students choose to remain in the UK to gain valuable industry experience whilst others return to their home countries to pursue successful careers.

    High quality written work on this course is ready to publish in academic and artistic contexts; high quality practice work is regularly exhibited internationally either during or after the course.

    UAL Alumni Association

    Our alumni association offers graduates support and a number of benefits.

    Student Jobs and Careers

    Find out how careers and employability helps our students and graduates start their careers.

    London College of Communication

    Contact

    Telephone

    +44 (0)20 7514 6500

    Address

    Elephant & Castle

    London
    SE1 6SB
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