“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers.” - Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind

Collaboratively Reimagining Rural Adolescent Health Experiences. Workshop: Future of Interaction Design. In collaboration with Jatan Sansthan, Udaipur. Image Source: Naveen Bagalkot.

Vision

The vision of the Postgraduate Program in Experience Design at Srishti Manipal is to create balanced practitioners and reflective makers in the field of Experience Design. A balanced practitioner, who delivers effectively and ethically to the demands of the field of Experience Design at present, while continuing their own quest for mastery of the craft of designing for experiences through a self-critical and informed approach of reflection-in-action. A reflective maker, who is equipped with the creative confidence to navigate the inevitable future complexities and uncertainties of this emerging field, challenge status-quo, to not only inform current and future technologies, but also the larger practice through conscious experimentation and knowledge building. The aspiring practitioner-inquirer begins by unpacking the very idea of experience design by asking some very fundamental questions:

1. What is an experience? And, where is it situated, really?
2. And, what then are the elements of an experience?
3. What is design? And, can experiences be designed for, at all?

As the human paradigms shift from the ‘efficient and usable’ to those of ‘well-being and care’, how does one,

1. Craft for services, systems, interfaces and interactions that are pliable to the needs of those who interact with it?
2. Understand the intricacies of human-technology interactions i.e. the nuances of the human and non-human somas to encourage complementary relationships?
3. Speculate, envision and inform future technologies that respect and truly coexist within the ecosystems they are to be in?
4. Build for complex cultural contexts such as that of India, to create futuristic, yet authentic experiences for its populace?
5. Design consciously, with cognizance to the environment and impacts on it?

Course Structure

• Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary studios
• Workshops
• Seminars
• Lines of Inquiries (Field work, Case Studies, Investigations, individual or Group Projects, Transdisciplinary Research)
• Theory and Understanding
• Independent Study
• Open Elective
• Practice
• Exhibitions
• Culminating Performances of Understanding (Portfolio, Transdisciplinary research, Projects, Colloquium, Capstone/Dissertation)
• Knowledge Enhancement (ability or skills)

Learning Approach

Learning at the postgraduate level is driven by published lines of inquiries that is enacted through studio based learning, workshops, theoretical reflections and field work. This approach cultivates a creative practice through engagement in diverse contexts, collaborative and participatory approaches leading to knowledge development.

Program learning approaches include:

1. A theoretical and historical knowledge of philosophies and methods of shaping human experiences with digital technology.
2. Methods of Hands-on and critical making as means of research and design.
3. Methods of speculative and participatory creativity and research.
4. Frameworks and methodologies of ethical perspectives and self-reflexivity while designing for experiences.

Capability Sets

Upon successful completion of the course, graduates will have the capabilities to:

1. Understand Experiences: Observe and systematically evaluate everyday human activities and develop an empathetic and nuanced understanding of the human, lived experience.
2. Understand Contexts and be Insightful: Engage with multiple forms of data sourced from multiple stakeholders through participatory methods and synthesize into novel insights that will inform design.
3. Position self in practice: Discern and align to develop an informed stance on historical, current and emerging trends about the relationship between the embodied and lived experiences and technology through conscious perceiving, questioning, and distinguishing between information from different sources, theories and knowledge forms.
4. Adopt a multidisciplinary approach: to problem-solving or enhancing experiences and develop divergent and convergent design thinking abilities and make connections, to convert the empathetic insights from research into purposeful and value-laden concepts.
5. Negotiate complexities at a systems-and-services level: Comprehend and negotiate the complex dynamics and interdependencies between the audience, culture, ecology, business, design and technology through analytical, critical and strategic thinking at a systems-and-services level.
6. Make to iterate and reflect: with multiple media and materials and technological artifacts for iterative or critical evaluation.
7. Communicate compellingly: the design process to invite critique and develop a community of stakeholders for the work.
8. Be Responsible: Be aware of, transparent and ethical in acknowledging and articulating one’s position with respect to the social, cultural, and political implications of technology, and one’s design interventions.

Opportunities

The above-mentioned capability sets could lead to opportunities such as:

1. Employment in design studios, R&D, product development teams in small and large corporations and start-ups focusing on design research, strategic user experience design, strategic service design, interaction design and user-interface design.
2. Employment in start-ups, small and medium enterprises, NGOs & social enterprises focusing on both product design and service-system design.
3. Employment in the Information Technology industry with a focus on user experience, user interface and experience design, and strategic service design.

People

Enquiries

Disciplines

The program is informed by the following learning disciplines:

Research and Collaboration

The students under this course will have the opportunity to work with the following centers and labs at Srishti Manipal.

FAQs