
xdMFA Program Curriculum




The mission of the Experience Design MFA is to enable learners to gain the design thinking, knowledge, and skills required for developing high fidelity, people-driven outcomes at personal and systemic levels. Coursework synthesizes theory and methods from design research, service, user experience, and communication design, encompassing digital and physical technologies. Learners grow these competencies through exercises, projects, and learning experiences designed to develop practical, analytical, creative, emotional, and social intelligences. Graduates are prepared to enter a wide range of design practices as designers and educators who are equipped to lead and develop culturally relevant design innovations in complex contexts.
Develop and conduct in-depth research on human and system behavior for design innovation.
Analyze and visualize real and perceived factors at a systemic level.
Apply a wide range of theories and frameworks to experience-centered design processes.
Develop outcomes with stakeholders via engaging and empowering co-creative processes.
Create design prototypes and plans with a high degree of formal and functional detail.
Create culturally relevant design outcomes informed by research.
Report design analyses and recommendations effectively for a wide range of audiences.
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The MFA in Experience Design is a studio-based program, where most learning is facilitated through iterative processes involving repeated critique and feedback. The nature of Experience Design as a practice that synthesizes research and making means that activities for learning are widely varied. For example, activities can include:
- Sketching to "reality-test" ideas that have not been visually articulated.
- Sketching for testing the operation of a design.
- Sketching to communicate ideas and proposed designs to others.
- Comping to communicate the form, makeup, and operation of design prototypes.
- Concept mapping to visualize relationships between concepts to inform writing.
- Systemic mapping to visualize real and perceived components of complex systems.
- Wireframing and storyboarding to prototype interfaces, interactions, and services.
- Creating probes and activities for engaging stakeholders in design processes.
- Experience mapping to visualize ways people interact with design.
- Photographing and recording observed instances of design in context.
- Designing face-to-face and recorded presentations whose visuals effectively support spoken and textual content.
- Observations, interviews, and focus group facilitation that lead to the production of an ethnographic report.
- Design and writing of reports that communicate design proposals and the research evidence that informs them.
- Using prototyping tools like InVision, Sketch, Adobe XD, Axure RP, or Marvel to enable product testing.
- Building physical prototypes at a rudimentary level for rapid product testing.
- Designing and facilitating charrette sessions to involve community members in the design process.
Courses in the xdMFA
Learners in the xdMFA are required to successfully complete four different types of coursework in order to earn the MFA degree. These four types include:
More information about activities in the studio classes for the degree is available on each course type page.
xdMFA Course Sequence
Depending on the year students are admitted into the MFA in Experience Design, students will start on the Year A, B, or C schedule. Course offerings rotate every year in a three-year cycle.
Use this list and the grid below to determine which courses are planned to be offered.
- Start Fall 2021: Year C
- Start Fall 2022: Year A
- Start Fall 2023: Year B
- Start Fall 2024: Year C
- Start Fall 2025: Year A
- Start Fall 2026: Year B
Toggle course content years below to view possible curriculum order.
Fall 2022, 2025, 2028 (Year A)
Experience Design Studio ART 650
Thesis Development ART 700
Design Research Theory ART 651
Special Topics Design Studio ART 560
Design Research Methods ART 627
Spring 2023, 2026, 2029 (Year A)
Experience Design Studio ART 650
Thesis Operation ART 700
Experience Design Methods ART 622
A History of Design ART 555
Elective IMS or ART
Summer 2023, 2026, 2029 (Year A)
Applied Experience Design: Walt Disney World (or other elective) ART 536
Elective IMS or ART
Fall 2023, 2026, 2029 (Year B)
Experience Design Studio ART 650
Thesis Development ART 700
Writing for Design Audiences ART 623
Special Topics Design Studio ART 560
Design Research Methods ART 627
Spring 2024, 2027, 2030 (Year B)
Experience Design Studio ART 650
Thesis Operation ART 700
Designing for Access ART 624
Elective IMS or ART
A History of Design ART 555
Summer 2024, 2027, 2030 (Year B)
Applied Experience Design: Walt Disney World (or other elective) ART 536
Elective IMS or ART
Fall 2021, 2024, 2027 (Year C)
Experience Design Studio ART 650
Thesis Development ART 700
Systemic Design ART 625
Special Topics Design Studio ART 560
Design Research Methods ART 627
Spring 2022, 2025, 2028 (Year C)
Experience Design Studio ART 650
Thesis Operation ART 700
Methods of Dissemination ART 626
Elective IMS or ART
A History of Design ART 555
Summer 2022, 2025, 2028 (Year C)
Applied Experience Design: Walt Disney World (or other elective) ART 536
Elective IMS or ART
Approved Electives
- ART 536 Applied Experience Design (Walt Disney World, Hybrid, 3 hrs)
- ART 571 Sculpture IV & V (Oxford, 3 hrs)
- ART 620 Drawing (Oxford, 3 hrs)
- ART/IMS 640 Experience Design Internship (Jobsite, 3-6 hrs)
- ART 645 Printmaking (Oxford, 3 hrs)
- ART 680 Graduate Seminar in Art History (Oxford, 3 hrs)
- IMS 504 Visualization (Oxford, 3 hrs)
- IMS 507 Interactive Business Communication (Online, 3 hrs)
- IMS 511 Visual Rhetoric (Online, 3 hrs)
- IMS 514 Web and Social Media Analytics (Online, 3 hrs)
- IMS 515 Advanced Usability and User Experience (Online, 3 hrs)
- IMS 518 Social Media Marketing (Online, 3 hrs)
- IMS 519 Digital Branding (Online, 3 hrs)
- IMS 522 Advanced Web Design (Hybrid, 3 hrs)
- IMS 540 Interactive Media Studies Practicum (Oxford, 3 hrs)
- IMS 561 Advanced 3D & Simulation (Oxford, 3 hrs)
- IMS 677 Independent Study: Web Design (Online, 3 hrs)
- IMS 677 User Experience Research (Online, 3 hrs)
The Miami University Bulletin series is the official source of information about the programs and courses of study offered at Miami University. Consult the bulletin for the most