California College of the Arts, Masters in Interaction Design
The one-year, three semester Master of Interaction Design (MDes) Program at California College of the Arts (CCA) cultivates leaders who drive social and technological innovation with a humanity-centered approach. Our mission is to graduate designer-generalists who can integrate empathy, ethics, behavior change into the social and technological impact of their work. We welcome students of diverse backgrounds, practice areas, and cultures.
Our Social Lab is a unique offering that pairs student-led project teams with community partners over two semesters. It’s during Social Lab that all students begin to apply their skills in real-world contexts, guided by faculty, yet shaped by deep collaboration with their external partners. Between January and August, student teams are immersed in the context of their partner’s challenges, and iteratively prototype and refine their hypotheses in the field. Partnerships have ranged from local and regional non-profits (e.g., Presidio Parks, Kids & Art Foundation, Enzo Senior Village, Alameda County Food Bank) to global enterprise organizations (e.g., CNN, UNICEF).
By integrating hands-on projects, community engagement, and interdisciplinary learning, MDes not only equips graduates with the tools to shape technology in ways that are ethical, inclusive, and socially beneficial, but it also provides opportunities to practice these skills, iteratively, in real-world contexts.
We value diversity of perspectives and experiences. We have a rigorous, multi-faceted evaluation process designed to identify students who possess humanity-centered values with systemic thinking. Many students do not come from a design background — they are mathematicians, scientists, or engineers — so we holistically consider previous successes in their field. The majority of our students (85%) are international — largely from Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and occasionally, Europe.
Our faculty are, increasingly, equally diverse. All are experienced professionals in various and overlapping aspects of our curriculum. They bring their lived and professional expertise, experiences, and networks into the classroom and the community. We embrace the sharing of ideas, successes, challenges, tools, resources, processes, guest critics, field trip destinations, and more. While each professor is encouraged to teach in their own way with their material, the course learning objectives remain consistent.
