Our curriculum uses an approach that integrates design and code skills side-by-side. While students must be able to design beautiful and engaging interactive products, they also need to be able to code them and bring them to life. While our students are taught a complex array of software and technologies that include HTML5/CSS3, JavaScript/jQuery, PHP/MySQL, Swift, SASS, Git, Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, Maya, After Effects, and SoundBooth – the User Experience & Interaction Design degree is essentially software agnostic. Our primary goal is to teach our students the foundations of digital technology and the core concepts of current technological innovations, so they can hit the ground running at any job, quickly mastering any software, hardware, or design challenge they encounter.

Major and Sequence Sheets

The following plans of study are linked to the Course Catalog and are for review purposes only. Several factors influence the sequencing of those courses including: transfer credits, AP credits, academic year entering the program and programmatic changes. Students should refer to their individualized DegreeWorks account and consult with their Academic Advisor to ensure they meet all degree requirements in a timely manner.

Co-op Options

Through Drexel’s renowned cooperative education program, students embark on up to three, six-month periods of full-time employment, exploring their career options, strengthening their resumes and building a professional network in the process. The User Experience & Interaction Design Major offers two options for students:

• Three Co-op (Five year degree)
• One Co-op (Four year degree)

User Experience & Interaction Design students have held co-op positions as user experience designers, user experience researchers, user interface designers, web designers, graphic designers, digital media designers, interactive designers, and front-end developers at Google, Adobe, Comcast, JPMorgan, Bluecadet, OpenForge, EY Intuitive, iper design, epam, CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), Cubist Media, Revzilla, Zivtech, and the City of Philadelphia Water Department.

User Experience & Interaction Design Senior Project

The senior project is the capstone experience of the Drexel User Experience & Interaction Design Major. It is a three-term course where students conceptualize, design, and develop a project of their own choice that showcases the skill sets that they have learned during their time in our program. Some choose to build production level projects that rival commercial agency work, while others choose to push the boundaries of the field.

In years past, students have built custom content management systems, experimental interactive applications, augmented reality applications, virtual reality applications, GPS based mobile applications, and web based games and educational systems.

Accelerated BS/MS Degree

Students in the User Experience & Interaction Design Major have the possibility of applying for the Accelerated BS/MS degree that allows students to complete both the Bachelor of Science in User Experience & Interaction Design and the Masters of Science in Digital Media in only 5 years. Students apply for the Accelerated BS/MS program in their sophomore year, and if accepted, start taking graduate courses along with their bachelor’s courses in their junior year, and continue on this same path for senior year, at the end of which, they have completed the requirements for the Bachelor of Science. By the fifth year, all of their courses are graduate courses, which include an intensive 3-term thesis project that propels students to add new knowledge and expertise to the field of Digital Media.

Job Opportunities

According to the US Bureau of Labor, there are 1,306,000 Computer and Information Technology jobs in the United States. The New York Times lists the category that includes User Experience & Interaction Design professionals, ”Network Systems and Data Communications Analyst,” as #2 in their Top 10 List of Job Opportunities, with a growth rate of 53%, equating to 156,000 new jobs by 2018. 

All of our undergraduates participate in Drexel’s cooperative education program in which they will work for six months at a paid job in their chosen field. Drexel averages 150 web and interactive related co-op opportunities per year, many leading to full time employment upon graduation. Our students have gone on to work as interactive designers, web designers, graphic designers, multimedia artists, web masters, programmers, and digital strategists for companies like Apple, Amazon, Big Spaceship, Comcast, Cubist Post, Digitas, Electronic Ink, Happy Cog, Lockheed Martin, The Smithsonian, U.S. Navy Research Center, the FBI, Microsoft XBox Live, and numerous other agencies, as well as in-house creative departments.

Academic Advisor: Jackie Mendoza