Course syllabus autumn 2026
        
    
        Course syllabus autumn 2026
    
    Title
            Introduction to multidisciplinary interaction design
        Swedish title
            Introduction to multidisciplinary interaction design
        Course code
            KD640A
        Credits
            15 credits
        Grading scale
            UG / Fail (U) or Pass (G)
        Language of instruction
            English
        Decision-making body
            Faculty of Culture and Society
        Syllabus approval date
            2017-04-19
        Syllabus valid from
            2017-08-28
        Entry requirements
            1. Degree of Bachelor or equivalent in subjects relevant for interaction design. Examples of relevant subjects include, but are not limited to: computer science,
informatics, information systems, human-computer interaction, new media arts,
fine arts, design (industrial, product, graphic, interaction), communication studies,
media studies and cognitive science.
2. Approval of the following submitted material: 2 x work samples of previous
relevant work and an individual response to the application assignment, available
on the Malmö University web site.
3. General eligibility + the equivalent of English course B in Swedish higher
secondary school.
Level
    Advanced level
            Main field
            Interaction Design
        Progression level
            
                A1N 
            
        Progression level in relation to degree requirements
        The course can normally be included as part of a general degree at advanced level.
        Course objectives
        The course aims to develop and enhance the student’s ability to perform and reflect on multi-disciplinary collaboration and designerly ways in interaction design.
The course serves as an emblematic primer to the programme at large with regards to design work, approaches, and processes.
Course contents
        - Perspectives on multi-disciplinary collaboration in interaction design (where team members may have different knowledge profiles) with weight on design process criteria.
- Key interaction design ways, methods and techniques
- Interaction design exemplars and key interaction design elements in salient genres.
Learning outcomes
        The course has dual sets of learning outcomes:
- One set (1, 3, 5) concerning collaboration and multidisciplinarity.
- One set (2, 4, 6) concerning interaction design.
 Repertoire and theory 
1. Relating choices of methods and approaches to the diversity of tasks for an interaction design team.
2. Building a repertoire of interaction design elements (e.g. behaviour, attributes, adaptivity etc.) and discern how interaction designs speak into salient concerns within Interaction design.
Skills and techniques
3. Constructively and reflectively collaborate throughout an interaction design process in teams of diverse backgrounds.
4. Performing design processes and therein make relevant use of key interaction design ways, techniques and methods.
 Reflection and criticism
5. Reflect on interaction designers’ roles and approaches in multidisciplinary collaboration and on designerly ways in interaction design.
6. Apply judgements of generative value in developing designs and in design critique of the work of others.
Learning activities
        In dialogue with design studio-work, the course entails introductory lectures, reflective seminars/workshops, as well as group and individual assignments. The students’ work is also supported by introductions to related facilities.
Collaboration, multi-disciplinarity and designerly ways are treated as first-order subjects, which means that they are studied, problematized, taught, and reflected upon in and through interaction design practice. Thus, the main activity is studio design practice performed in diverse teams. Such design practice forms the practical basis for experimentation with and reflection on multidisciplinary collaboration and designerly ways.
In their design practice, the students draw on salient themes and topics from key fields of interaction design, as well as they try-out methods and ways suitable for the task at hand – such as informal techniques for understanding use situations, synthesis & creative reframing, interaction ideation & sketching, and user-oriented evaluation. The students’ design practice also serve as basis for reflections on design process criteria.
Assessment
        Learning outcomes pertaining to multidisciplinary collaboration are assessed through individual assignments.
Here, learning outcomes 1, 3 and 5 are assessed.
The other main assessment activity is oral group examination of the design-studio variety known as studio crits. Here, learning outcomes 2, 4, and 6 are assessed.
Course literature and other study material
            
            Bardzell & Bardzell (2015): Humanistic HCI. Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics, Morgan and Claypool
Buxton, W (2007): Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design,Elsevier/Morgan Kaufman
Complemented with online resources such as http://www.interaction-design.org/
Course evaluation
        The University provides students who participate in or who have completed a course with the opportunity to make known their experiences and viewpoints with regards to 
the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarize the results of course evaluations as well as informing participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures initiated in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).