This foundational course introduces the history and core principles of Interaction Design, exploring how designers shape the way people experience digital and physical products. Students learn the basics of a humane design process, from researching needs to generating ideas and building early prototypes. The course frames design as a tool for both critical thinking and responsible transformation, encouraging students to ask: what kind of future are we designing toward? Through hands-on exercises and playful experimentation, students develop working prototypes and build the vocabulary needed to discuss and evaluate the quality of interactive experiences.
This core studio introduces the fundamental principles and professional practices of interaction design, with a focus on designing for people. Students explore key concepts such as affordances, feedback loops, signifiers, and mental models, and learn to apply them when creating intuitive digital experiences. Alongside studio practice, students critically examine emerging technologies like AI and extended reality, considering how they reshape everyday life and public systems. The course concludes with the design and high-fidelity prototyping of projects that envision possible futures for civic and community innovation.
This introductory technical lab teaches the front-end development skills needed to build working interactive experiences for mobile and web. Students learn to treat code, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as creative mediums, not just technical tools. Using industry-standard tools, including Figma, students design and build functional, responsive interfaces with usability and accessibility built in from the start. Projects result in fully realized web and mobile application prototypes, connecting design thinking with hands-on technical execution.
This course introduces qualitative research methods that put people at the center of the design process. Students practice techniques such as interviewing, observation, story mapping, and co-design to better understand people's real needs and experiences. A central theme is equity: students learn to identify systemic biases in design and develop the skills to create more inclusive outcomes. Coursework includes research documentation, synthesis reports, user journey maps, and recommendations developed in response to real community contexts.
This studio expands design practice beyond individual screens and objects to the larger systems, platforms, and services they are part of. Students learn service design and UX strategy methods of mapping the people, touchpoints, and processes involved in a complete experience. The central challenge is designing across both digital and physical layers: how does an app connect to a physical space, an organization's policies, or a government service? Projects include system maps, service blueprints, and prototypes that demonstrate the ability to design at an organizational scale.
This technical lab builds on foundational web skills to explore the web as a living, data-driven ecosystem. Students work with APIs, data structures, and advanced web frameworks to create responsive, experimental interactive systems. The lab also examines how digital networks shape culture and society, with projects that blend technical craft with conceptual depth. Outcomes include data visualizations, generative interfaces, and experimental web projects that demonstrate both technical proficiency and a critical perspective on the internet.
This course develops students' ability to critically examine the role of data and digital systems in contemporary design. Students learn to analyze where data comes from, how it is represented, and what effects it has on people and communities. Methods include system mapping, data visualization, and design approaches that work with and critically question algorithmic systems. Projects range from interactive infographics and system analysis reports to research-driven design experiments that explore the ethical implications of data-driven design.
This advanced studio focuses on the craft of microinteractions and motion design, the small, detailed moments that define how a digital product feels to use. Students learn the principles of motion and animation in UX to communicate system states, guide attention, and create moments of delight. The emphasis is on rigor: applying insights from cognitive science to design interactions that feel both intuitive and polished. The course culminates in a comprehensive Motion Design System and a set of high-fidelity prototypes demonstrating refined microinteraction design.
This lab uses creative coding as a tool for artistic expression and speculative thinking, asking not just how software works, but what it could mean. Students use programming languages and frameworks to generate visuals, build procedural forms, and create complex interactive systems. The approach values play, rapid experimentation, vibe-coding, and the use of code as a material for storytelling and world-building. Projects result in generative art installations or speculative digital prototypes that combine technical skill with a clear critical perspective on technology's role in the future.
This studio explores interaction design beyond the screen, focusing on experiences that engage multiple senses: sight, sound, touch, and movement, across both physical and digital spaces. Students prototype embodied experiences using physical computing tools such as sensors and microcontrollers, and explore novel interaction modes including voice, gesture, and ambient systems. The emphasis is on creating responsive, immersive experiences that challenge assumptions about what a user interface can be. Projects include interactive objects, speculative wearables, and experiential installations that demonstrate a sophisticated approach to multi-sensory design.
This lab explores the Internet of Things (IoT): the continually growing network of connected devices that shape our homes, cities, and everyday environments. Students engage with physical computing, learning to build and program systems using sensors and microcontrollers. The emphasis is on critical prototyping: designing smart objects and connected environments that propose more humane, thoughtful relationships between people, technology, and information. Course outcomes include functional IoT prototypes and documentation that defines the system's architecture and ethical considerations.
This advanced studio treats AI as both a creative collaborator and a complex design challenge. Students actively experiment with AI tools, integrating and adapting them, to build speculative prototypes of future human-AI interactions. The course centers on critical inquiry: What does it mean to design and build with AI? What responsibilities come with it? Projects take the form of high-fidelity speculative prototypes, accompanied by critical essays that articulate the ethical and social dimensions of each design proposal.
This course helps students build a flexible and comprehensive research toolkit suited to complex design problems. Students learn to combine methods across qualitative, quantitative, speculative, and participatory approaches, adapting their strategy to the needs of the project at hand. Advanced techniques, such as radical participatory design, are explored in ambiguous, real-world contexts. The primary output is a detailed Mixed-Methods Research Plan and a synthesis of findings that demonstrates the ability to design and justify a research approach for a sophisticated design challenge.
This studio focuses on ambitious, self-directed projects at the frontier of interaction design by engaging with Extended Reality (XR), immersive media, and emerging technologies. Students bring together their full range of skills and knowledge to develop a project that pushes the boundaries of the field. The emphasis is on research depth, professional-level execution, and making a clear contribution to interaction design as a discipline. The primary outcome is a polished, interactive prototype such as a VR application, immersive system, or next-generation interface, ready for public presentation.
This course serves as the final preparation for the professional field, focusing on refinement, reflection, and communicating the impact of students' work. Students bring their projects to portfolio-ready quality, with attention to design execution and public presentation. Emphasis is on critical reflection: writing about the design process, articulating the civic and cultural significance of the work, and sharing it in ways that invite public dialogue. The course concludes with a professional package that includes reflective writing, portfolio documentation, and the final presentation of works, including the thesis project completed outside this class.
Willamette University