School: TU Delft
Location: Delft, Netherlands
Undergraduate program: Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design Engineering
Graduate program: Master of Science in Design for Interaction
Number of students: 289 (in the Design For Interaction master program)
Number of faculty: N/A
Notable alumni: André Taris of G-Star Raw, Eline Vrijland-van Beest of NightBalance, Mark van Iterson of Heiniken, Thomas Paulen of Van Berlo, Jessica Abad Kelly of Deloitte Digital, Paul Gardien of Philips Design, Jacob Post of Air France-KLM, Pleun Lauwerier of Unilever
Website: tudelft.nl/en/ide/education/master-studies/msc-design-for-interaction/
Strengths: A deep dive into the emerging study of the subjective side of products and services, with a focus on developing a sophisticated understanding of users, their lives, motivations, behaviours and aspirations.
The overview: TU Delft’s multidisciplinary MSc in Design for Interaction is an industrial design program that centres on product and service design, but focuses specifically on people (not designing applications, websites or interfaces, as some interaction programs do). In the process, it incorporates ideas from aesthetics and ergonomics to psychology and sociology. The first year revolves around understanding the user and his/her experience, concept visualization and generation, prototyping and applying up-to-date technologies and design evaluation. In the second year, students choose their own focus and dedicate the final semester to an intensive graduation project. The student body is predominantly Dutch, with 25 per cent of students from outside the Netherlands. Classes are taught in English.