In the past two decades, there has been a revolutionary change in the way people interact with digital technologies in their everyday lives. The lines that separated digital from physical products and services have blurred, giving designers new responsibilities to shape experiences.

Interaction design facilitates the experience between people and the interactive products and services they use. As a discipline, it shapes those experiences that sit at the intersection of user needs, business goals and technology. As a discourse, it defines a vocabulary for a growing number of relationships across media-among people, products and environments.

Today, business success depends on the presence of a well-designed, engaging experience. This is a notable change in focus. As design emerged as a service-oriented profession, its practitioners created artifacts that focused on the object. Although the importance of well-designed products continues to be paramount, with the arrival of increasingly complex technologies it has become apparent that the experience of interacting with products and services is essential. Designing that experience is what has emerged as interaction design.

The School of Visual Arts MFA in Interaction Design seeks to cultivate interaction design as a discipline and further its visibility as a community of practice. With equal emphasis on theory and practical application, our program provides an environment in which students re-define and re-envision what design means in the context of everyday interactions.

The model for the program engages interdisciplinary components that are central to our definition of interaction design and includes research, human-computer interaction, graphic design, information architecture, interface design, strategy and ubiquitous computing. In projects that span the screen, the device and beyond, we seek to explore designing a range of experiences that traverse visual, conceptual and technical boundaries.

Interaction design is a rapidly growing academic discipline and field of practice. In addition to its presence at an increasing number of academic institutions and professional organizations, it has expanded into the business arena, and is fast becoming a core discipline required of design teams. Designers must learn to anticipate how to shape their ideas for unanticipated modes in everyday life. The experience that we're shaping is an evolving one.

Liz Danzico, chair