Interaction Design Studios

You might know interaction design by some of its other names: experience design, digital product design, and user experience design. What it means is that you’ll develop solutions to problems that are meaningful and human centered, whether for healthcare, gaming, or travel industries.

📍1111 8th Street, second level

Media Gallery

360° view of Interaction Design Homeroom | California College of the Arts

Dean Helen Maria and a student interact with wooden objects on a LED-lit table.

A gray-and-green carpeted room with modular desks, chairs, and rolling walls.

Three students present a video work to a seated panel of industry experts and students.

About BFA Interaction Design (IxD)

Space for ideation

📲 About BFA Interaction Design (IxD)

Whether through social networks, digital interfaces, or physical products, you’ll learn to create forward-thinking solutions to real-world problems. The program is less about coding and more about building seamless user flows that center on people’s needs, goals, and behaviors to make technology more accessible and trustworthy.

Shape design culture

Did you know our program is one of the world’s first undergraduate interaction design programs? Our faculty members have been defining the field since the start and continue to do so. In their courses, you’ll learn investigative research, systematic thinking, creative prototyping, and hands-on building. Conversations about equity, inclusion, and sustainability are always taking place in the classroom, and we encourage you to use your knowledge, your lived experiences, and the power of technology to make a difference.

Connect with industry leaders

It’s not very hard to get your foot in the door working with major technology companies, as many sponsored courses at CCA. Designers at Google, Lenovo, Samsung, and more are guests in your class, working with students to develop solutions or critique their work. And internships are an essential part of the program, with opportunities at Apple, Intuit, Alibaba, and Amazon.

🛠️ Space for ideation

CCA’s shops and studios will help you bring your ideas and research to life, whether printing vinyl graphics on large-format printers or creating physical prototypes with sensors and motors. For example, an interactive game by Jamie Catt (BFA Interaction Design 2020), in collaboration with Nat Kasman, Heather Lee, and Jieying Yang, taught players Korean through a digital tabletop and physical playing cards.

IxD Studio Space

Interaction Design students have a new, welcoming, and useful space for ideation and creation. It’s decked out with whiteboards, lounge areas, and HD monitors to get your ideas flowing and create community with your cohort.

Hybrid Lab

Come make weird stuff \(○<>○)/ The Hybrid Lab is an interdisciplinary space for making with technology that is built around the principles of being open, fast, and inspiring. Here, students experiment with digital fabrication tools, electronic knitting machines, iOS and Android tablets, soldering stations, 3D printers, sensors, motors, and more. Students come during open lab hours or regular workshops to discuss projects, spark ideas, learn new skills, and collaboratively problem-solve.