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Experience Design
(MA 2 Year PG Program)

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Note: Applicants should apply to the MA courses if they intend to take up PGDP Finish. There is no separate application form for PGDP Finish; one can exit at the end of year 1 of MA with an award of a PG Diploma upon successfully completing the graduation requirements.

Experience Design is a discipline that focuses on enhancing the human experience through digital material, without being limited to it. The course aims to create opportunities that enhance lived experiences using technologies as creators, facilitators and mediators. Students will be trained in conducting research, planning, and stakeholder engagement to develop fair, equitable and accessible design solutions. With a degree in Experience Design from Srishti Manipal, you can pursue a career in various fields, including product and service industries, design firms, and the non-profit sector, or pursue a PhD in a related area. The program provides a platform for developing a sensitive and reflective practice, equipping practitioners to critique the social, cultural, economic, and political facets that shape our experiences and futures.

Course Structure
SMEAT Selection Protocols
SMEAT Timeline
Fee Details
Eligibility
FAQ

VISION

The vision of the Postgraduate Program in Experience Design at Srishti Manipal is to create balanced practitioners and reflective makers in the field of Experience Design. A balanced practitioner, who delivers effectively and ethically to the demands of the field of Experience Design at present, while continuing their own quest for mastery of the craft of designing for experiences through a self-critical and informed approach of reflection-in-action. A reflective maker, who is equipped with the creative confidence to navigate the inevitable future complexities and uncertainties of this emerging field, challenge status-quo, to not only inform current and future technologies, but also the larger practice through conscious experimentation and knowledge building. The aspiring practitioner-inquirer begins by unpacking the very idea of experience design by asking some very fundamental questions:

  1. What is an experience? And, where is it situated, really?
  2. And, what then are the elements of an experience?
  3. What is design? And, can experiences be designed for, at all?

As the human paradigms shift from the ‘efficient and usable’ to those of ‘well-being and care’, how does one,

  1. Craft for services, systems, interfaces and interactions that are pliable to the needs of those who interact with it?
  2. Understand the intricacies of human-technology interactions i.e. the nuances of the human and non-human somas to encourage complementary relationships?
  3. Speculate, envision and inform future technologies that respect and truly coexist within the ecosystems they are to be in?
  4. Build for complex cultural contexts such as that of India, to create futuristic, yet authentic experiences for its populace?
  5. Design consciously, with cognizance to the environment and impacts on it?

COURSE STRUCTURE

  • Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary studios
  • Workshops
  • Seminars
  • Lines of Inquiries (Field work, Case Studies, Investigations, individual or Group Projects, Transdisciplinary Research)
  • Theory and Understanding
  • Independent Study
  • Open Elective
  • Practice
  • Exhibitions
  • Culminating Performances of Understanding (Portfolio, Transdisciplinary research, Projects, Colloquium, Capstone/Dissertation)
  • Knowledge Enhancement (ability or skills)

LEARNING APPROACH

As a student in this program, you will challenge traditional notions of User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) Design from the ground up, by dismantling and understanding experiences, and building for the real world. Collaborating with a diverse array of professionals, and engaging with theories, methodologies and approaches that transcend disciplines, you will explore the bodily and kinesthetic approaches to shaping human encounters with technology. You will develop the ability to engage with complexity, contextualise, gain insights and develop self-reflexivity. This course will develop the foundation to becoming an iterative maker employing collaborative, empathetic, ethical and responsible practises.

CAPABILITIES

Upon successful completion of the course, graduates will have the capabilities to:

  1. Understand Experiences: Observe and systematically evaluate everyday human activities and develop an empathetic and nuanced understanding of the human, lived experience.
  2. Understand Contexts and be Insightful: Engage with multiple forms of data sourced from multiple stakeholders through participatory methods and synthesize into novel insights that will inform design.
  3. Position self in practice: Discern and align to develop an informed stance on historical, current and emerging trends about the relationship between the embodied and lived experiences and technology through conscious perceiving, questioning, and distinguishing between information from different sources, theories and knowledge forms.
  4. Adopt a multidisciplinary approach: to problem-solving or enhancing experiences and develop divergent and convergent design thinking abilities and make connections, to convert the empathetic insights from research into purposeful and value-laden concepts.
  5. Negotiate complexities at a systems-and-services level: Comprehend and negotiate the complex dynamics and interdependencies between the audience, culture, ecology, business, design and technology through analytical, critical and strategic thinking at a systems-and-services level.
  6. Make to iterate and reflect: with multiple media and materials and technological artifacts for iterative or critical evaluation.
  7. Communicate compellingly: the design process to invite critique and develop a community of stakeholders for the work.
  8. Be Responsible: Be aware of, transparent and ethical in acknowledging and articulating one’s position with respect to the social, cultural, and political implications of technology, and one’s design interventions.

FAQs

What is Experience Design?

Experience Design is a discipline that focuses on enhancing human experiences through digital mediums. It requires a critical and reflective approach to design and technology, and a willingness to engage in complexity and diverse contexts to design ethically, collaboratively, and meaningfully for the evolving future. This approach is grounded in the principles of participatory practices, somaesthetics, ethical responsibility, and a desire to shape human experiences through design.

Is this course suitable for me?

A postgraduate program in Experience Design is suitable for individuals who wish to pursue a career in researching, conceptualizing, building, and engaging with a wide range of stakeholders towards designing just, equitable, and accessible experiences with digital systems and infrastructures. This program may be suitable for students who are interested in working in product and service industries, design firms, or the non-profit sector, or for those who wish to apply for a PhD in a related area.

What opportunities do I have after completing this course?

  • The above-mentioned capability sets could lead to opportunities such as:
    1. Employment in design studios, R&D, product development teams in small and large corporations and start-ups focusing on design research, strategic user experience design, strategic service design, interaction design and user-interface design.
    2. Employment in start-ups, small and medium enterprises, NGOs & social enterprises focusing on both product design and service-system design.
    3. Employment in the Information Technology industry with a focus on user experience, user interface and experience design, and strategic service design.