Entry requirements

Passed the two preceding studio courses in Year 2 (Design and social innovation, Play and ludic interaction) or courses deemed equivalent – see programme syllabus.

Progression level in relation to degree requirements

The course can normally be included as part of a general degree at advanced level.

Course contents

The thesis project is an interaction design project on a topic of the student’s own choice, oriented towards explorative interaction-design research. It may consist of one larger project, a series of coherent design experiments, or some other form that is conducive to the learning outcomes. It is carried out individually or in small teams, in which case the reporting is done individually by the team members. The work comprises practical design activities as well as reflective work and reporting to academic standards.

Interaction design activities at advanced level within the subfield chosen by the student(s), oriented towards explorative interaction-design research and leading to a knowledge contribution.

Learning outcomes

In order to increase precision, the generic types of outcomes are mapped to interaction design as follows.

• Knowledge and understanding – Repertoire and theory (canonical designs, important design elements and important theoretical concepts)
• Competence and skills – Skills and technique (including design approach)
• Judgment and approach – Reflection and criticism.

Repertoire and theory

• Building a comprehensive overview of existing canonical examples, best practices and academic state of the art in a chosen subfield within interaction design. (1)
• Displaying ability to critically position, contextualize and motivate design activities within a chosen subfield within interaction design. (2)

Skills and techniques

• Displaying ability to plan, execute, frame and re-frame design activities at advanced level in the chosen subfield, individually or in small teams, within the time and resource limitations at hand. (3)
• Displaying ability to choose techniques appropriate for advanced-level design work and execute them appropriately. (4)
• Displaying ability to perform, document and communicate design activities as part of knowledge construction within the framework of interaction design research. (5)
• Displaying ability to publicly communicate, display and discuss the work verbally, in written form and in other forms of expression appropriate for the chosen subfield and the nature of the work. (6)

Reflection and criticism

• Displaying ability to critically reflect upon the design-based research methodology applied, including identification of needs for further knowledge and learning. (7)
• Displaying ability to assess advanced-level design work. (8)
• Displaying fair ability to assess the academic value of knowledge contributions in interaction design research. (9)

Learning activities

Planning and performing an interaction design project at advanced level within a chosen topic, individually or in small teams, oriented towards explorative interaction-design research. Reporting the work individually in a Master’s Thesis and possibly other forms of expression, all of which are made public. The student’s work is supported by individual supervision and joint seminars. Learning activities are further specified in a detailed Course Guide.

Assessment

The individual Master’s Thesis and possible other forms of expression are assessed by examiners in a public seminar. This assessment addresses all learning outcomes (1–9).

Course literature

Resources selected by student and project supervisor based on the chosen topic.

Course evaluation

Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).

Interim rules

If a course is no longer offered, or has undergone significant changes, the students must be offered two opportunities for re-examination based on the syllabus that applied at the time of registration, for a period of one year after the changes have been implemented.

Additional information

If a student has a Learning support decision, the examiner has the right to provide the student with an adapted test, or to allow the student to take the exam in a different format. The syllabus is a translation of a Swedish source text.