Interaction Design and Electronic Arts
The IDEA program enables you to design for the future, using the emergent technologies of today.
Technology has a profound effect on culture. The printing press enabled today’s literacy and mass communication. The internet is the digital backbone of modern life. These technologies were developed from their beginnings into ubiquitous technologies by people with the vision, drive and determination to design a better world.
The IDEA program trains you in the skills to nurture emergent technologies for successful commercial and cultural applications. You will experiment, evaluate and apply the most recent advances in technology. A studio-based teaching environment challenges you to design new technologies and interactions. You will work closely with leading researchers to embed computational possibilities into our physical world - blending the digital and the real.
This understanding forms the core of the IDEA program’s design philosophy: technology that is designed to delight its users. This cutting-edge program infuses the latest technological innovation with a human-centred design thinking. The result is an understanding of how to design for technologies that will have lasting cultural and commercial importance.
Don’t just keep up: Get ahead.
It’s exhilarating but exhausting to keep up with the latest technology. The IDEA program teaches you to predict where the next major innovations will be and position your skills to respond to the changes they bring.
You learn to predict which technologies will disrupt and revolutionise industries. By designing innovative strategies that capitalise on these changes, your work will fuse high-level technologies with a distinct expressiveness. Your best works will reflect your design ethos while exceeding user’s expectations for functionality.
With access to our constantly updated, cutting-edge and experimental technologies, the IDEA program best positions you to interact with the technologies you want, the way you want.
Experiment. Analyse. Implement
The IDEA program uses an innovative structure of core studios and laboratories. It’s an approach the enables you to combined advanced technical skills with personal projects that best demonstrate your interests.
Laboratory subjects train you in core technical competencies. You will learn skills in programming, application development, electronic engineering and experimental interface design. We extend your proficiency in these areas by encouraging you to use your skills in new and innovative contexts that drive technological development.
Once you have these core skills, you are trained to analyse and evaluate their application in a range of design challenges. This evaluative approach is what enables IDEA students to recognise the emergent technologies that will become ubiquitous parts of our everyday life.
Studio units are at the centre of the program. Studio content changes each semester, to keep pace with the latest advances in technology. In studio, you work individually or in teams to design and build new devices and experiences. These studio projects give form to your expression and may form the basis of prototype products, patents or even startup services.
Entry Requirements
Applicants for the Master and Graduate Diploma programs must hold a Bachelor degree.
Applicants for the Graduate Certificate must demonstrate the knowledge and aptitude required to undertake the course.
The program can be taken as a Graduate Certificate (six months full time), Graduate Diploma (one year full time) or Master degree (one and a half years full time). Part time study is available for Australian citizens and permanent residents, and must be completed within the maximum limits of 10 years for Masters, 4 years for Diploma and 3 years for Graduate Certificates.
Students may apply to upgrade at the completion of their program from the Graduate Certificate, through to the Diploma and then to the Masters by maintaining a 70 weighted average mark over the course of study.Masters and Diploma students may also opt to graduate with a lower level of certification once the required units are complete.
Career Prospects
IDEA graduates are primed to take leading positions in innovative commercial enterprises. The unique blend of design thinking and technical application fostered by the program positions graduates to provide a range of implementation and consultation skills to business. IDEA skills are applicable to the creative industries, design and interaction consultancy and new product development.
