MFA Interaction Design deadline
Today, January 15, marks the first application deadline for students to apply to the MFA Interaction Design program at School of Visual Arts. The school will continue to accept applications on a rolling admissions basis as space allows, but don’t count on spaces staying open long—the program is limited to fifteen students. An application timeline shows what students can expect between today and April.
In a city that also boasts Parsons, Pratt, and Cooper Union, New York’s School of Visual Arts holds a unique place. There are no full-time professors; instead, faculty are drawn from the ranks of New York’s top full-time practitioners. They are working designers, art directors, painters, sculptors, and so on. Sal Devito, a creative director for whom I was privileged to work in the 1990s, is a legendary SVA instructor; so is Milton Glaser.
As you would expect, the faculty of the MFA Interaction Design program includes some of the brightest people in user experience. (By some fluke, I am also a faculty member.) Liz Danzico, former experience director of Happy Cog Studios, chairs the program.
A good education is hard to find. When it comes to web and interaction design, it’s almost impossible. I’m honored to be one of the faculty in the School of Visual Art’s MFA Interaction Design program, and look forward to teaching and learning there.
[tags]design, interactiondesign, MFA, program, SVA, schoolofvisualarts, newyork, NYC, lizdanzico[/tags]
Filed under: Design, Education, Ideas, industry, User Experience, UX, Web Design
21 Responses to “MFA Interaction Design deadline”
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*ahem*
If an undergraduate program shows up in 2010, I’ll be there in a heartbeat.
Wow Judson, my thoughts exactly except I would need it this year. Know of any good undergraduate programs?
Ooosh…very cool. I love the site too, btw – but it looks as though the school’s main site could use an update.
Best of luck in your educational endeavors Jeffrey!
It’s not the same curriculum or focus, but the Art Institute of Atlanta, chaired by Ameeta Jadav, runs a BFA Web Design and Interactive Media program that strongly emphasizes usability, accessibility, and web standards. Aarron Walter, author of Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond and a frequent and popular lecturer at An Event Apart, is on the faculty there. And I’m told that Designing With Web Standards is standard text book in the curriculum.
Judson and Matthew… at the Art Institute of Atlanta, we offer an undergraduate program in Web Design and Interactive Media. As Jeffrey shared, we have built our curriculum to include web standards, usability, accessibility as core concepts along with user-experience design, non-linear narrative and production processes.
And yes… Designing With Web Standards is a required text book… and one our students usually keep – even after the course is over..
Looks like an excellent course. I feel envious! Lovely website too.
Airbag Industries designed the site; the Heads of State created the logo.
Thanks, will keep the course in mind :).
It does bring up a discussion though, there’s certainly a lack of fantastic usability, interface and web design courses in high schools and even colleges. There’s a couple exceptions, but if you don’t count interactive courses (which are generally teaching flash and actionscript), web design hasn’t blossomed educationally. I suppose it’s not a terrible idea to self teach, but I’d still love to go to a college where I could have guest talks with some of the best designers around. There’s a lot to be desired from just blog posts.
My current plan is to hit Ringling College of Art and Design as a Graphic and Interactive Communication Major. In the four years there, there is only one intro to Web Design course and a new media course, but the heavy emphasis on pure design (and 9 credits worth of Type Design!!) will hopefully help me get a good balance).
It is indeed curious how greatly web designers contribute culturally and economically, yet how little attention is paid to our profession. After more than 13 years, you would think most institutions of learning would have figured out some kind of worthwhile educational curriculum for those wishing to enter this field—and if not most institutions, surely the design schools, you would hope—but it’s mostly a desert out there.
Only 15? Who do I have to smother with gifts to get in next year? ;)
All joking aside, I am absolutely determined to get in to this program after I graduate with my BFA in Graphic Design in 2010.
I’m currently studying at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Our Web program is nonexistent, except for some Flash; I’m putting together a proposal for a series of Web workshops next year. Intermediate Computer Graphics (an Electronic Visualization class, not a Graphic Design class) teaches some Web development, but doesn’t teach to current standards. Or even the standards of five years ago. We have no Web designers as faculty in the entire College of Art and Architecture that I know of — hell, I’m just a student and I’ve become a point person for reworking University sites! It’s strange, considering we are in a big city with lots of talent. However, we have a very strong program concerning grids, typography, hierarchy and craft, and very seasoned print design faculty.
This semester I’ve been lucky enough to have UIC send me to Luzern, Switzerland to study. Like UIC, however, it doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a Web program. Only 1 student out of the 50-so I was introduced to was interested in the Web. In fact, I can’t find many Web developers here. The country made 2008 its “IT Year” because at the current education rate, there are not enough young IT workers to replace those who are retiring. Awkward all around.
Ashley: You sound like a perfect candidate for this program. I hope to meet you some day! You also describe a typical and utterly depressing situation where higher education and web design are concerned:
That really says it all, and U. of Illinois is by no means unique in this regard.
Thanks for making a difference, and thanks for sharing here.
I feel like this is such a huge opportunity. I’m actually graduating from the University of Kentucky this spring but I would of killed to know about the Undergraduate program at the Art Institute of Atlanta when I started my studies.
Like Ashley, my University offers very little in the area of Web Design (and Graphic Design for that matter). In the classes that they do offer, the faculty doesn’t push Web Standards hardly at all. In fact, they will teach bad practices out of ignorance, which to me is worse than trying to teach at all.
I was lucky to seek out alternate education in the form of mentors and eventually landing a full-time job as a Web designer at a local design agency.
Working full-time while also going to school taught me a huge amount but I also realize that there is so much I missed out on. I had to learn many things the hard way by not going to a University that had a Web design program.
Hopefully we’ll see more programs like this pop up and teach Web and Interaction design because it is such a huge need.
I can’t wait to see the designers coming out of these programs.
very nice. it’s a shame there’s not something similar here in the UK or Australia for that matter.
I was surprised to hear about UIC. That same thing happened at our small liberal arts college. My husband was taking Intro to Web last year and now is the filled the Assistant Director of Communications position (as an intern) because he is the only one who knows anything about web design (and the school saved a bundle in our anemic economy).
Web designers are like proverbial needles in haystacks, especially where we live. What strikes us in that everyone NEEDS a website and yet the people who specialize in them are so hard to find -well, maybe not in New York City. Finding web design teachers? IMPOSSIBLE!
We had one professor who taught a web design class and then moved so we have been forging along reading blogs and using online tutorials in what little spare time we have. After too many wasted hours on the internet looking, we believe internships are our only hope – then again, we don’t know anyone to second that. Anyone have a testimonial of web interning they would care to dispense? Is that the way to bridge the gap?
[ I'll sing the praises of small class sizes to my dying day but I wish you took more than 15 students into your MFA program... ]
@Sidwell: I was fairly surprised myself. I already have one of the main offices wanting to hire me upon graduation. It`s actually a little better at my community college (Joliet Junior College, the oldest in the US), I think, because they can adapt a bit faster than a 4-year lumbering giant. We also have a one of those go-getters for a president. Their “Web Administration” program does teach to fairly recent techniques; they require a graphic design class; even suggest the students take marketing.
It`s my mission next year to provide a solid intro program to designing for the Web. I might step on a few toes but it`d be worth it.
I would love to hear more about Web apprenticeships. That`s something I`d love to do when I have a studio of my own. Here in Switzerland apprenticeships are common, but Web development isn`t very popular and I haven`t been around long enough/talked to the right people yet in order to find out more. When I do, though, I`ll be sure to share.
It is all I could do to keep from jumping up and flailing about in excitement upon hearing about this program. Like Ashley, I went to an art school (SMFA in Boston) that lacked serious web design courses, or even a cohesive design curriculum. The upshot of it was that experimentation and cross-disciplinary play abounded. The downshot was I chose a somewhat solitary path of (web) design self-education.
Perhaps this is not a shabby educational model – first play wildly, then hone as a grad. Lots of liberal arts students do it, and it works. But it’s about time that a truly technologically aware, intensive program came into being. As much as I love the online nexuses (nexi?) that enable inquisitive young web dorks to meet one another, it’s about time we get a place where we can come together IRL and swap ideas.
I only wish there were more programs like this in the US. 15 is an awfully low number of impeccably primed web talents to be putting out into the design field per year!
[...] Collier There was a bit of conversation on Jeffery’s blog (see comments as well), as short lived as it [...]
The san francisco art institute is a design, fashion and media arts school providing associates and bachelors degrees in Graphic Design, Fashion Design, Advertising, Fashion Marketing, Game Art & Design, Media Arts & Animation, Fashion Marketing & Management, Multimedia & Web Design, Interior Design and Visual & Game Programming.
I know it well. A fine school. An ex-girlfriend (an extraordinary painter) got her MFA Fine Arts there.
This post, however, is about an MFA in Interaction Design.
I’m sorry to see SFAI spamming blog comments.
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