BA (Hons) Interaction Design
Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom
BA
DURATION
4 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Jan 2027
TUITION FEES
GBP 21,400 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international first year full-time study |£9,790: home full-time study. Additional fees may apply
Key Summary
About: BA (Hons) Interaction Design at Kingston School of Art centers on human-centered design, interactive storytelling and immersive experiences. You'll learn by making, prototyping and researching within the Department of Illustration Animation, collaborating across disciplines in shared workshops. The programme builds UX, visual and experience design skills.
Career Outcomes: Graduates work as interaction designer, experience designer, exhibition designer, design researcher, digital designer, art director, creative director, immersive storyteller, illustrator, animator, games designer, educator. The embedded Future Skills programme builds problem-solving, digital competency and adaptability so you can show work to employers and move into roles in design, media and tech.
Shape the way you experience and interact with the world around you
A space to explore and create
At Kingston School of Art, you’ll join a creative community where collaboration and critical thinking thrive. Our workshops and studios welcome all courses, providing space for students and staff to share ideas and explore making across different disciplines.
Teaching on the course centres on understanding human experience – how we sense, act and relate – as the heart of innovative design practice. We believe students learn best through making and developing as critical practitioners who influence and shape their creative field.
The BA (Hons) Interaction Design course is based within the vibrant, well-regarded Department of Illustration Animation. We are known for nurturing successful graduates, as well as our human-centred approach to visual communication, design, and immersive storytelling. These key elements will deeply enrich your learning experience.
Within this dynamic environment, you’ll also exchange ideas and approaches which open new opportunities for growth and creativity.
Why choose this course
Interaction Design at Kingston School of Art explores how people connect with technology, spaces, and each other. Through interactive storytelling, immersive experiences, and inclusive human-centred design, you’ll create interactive installations, digital experiences, and new ways for people to share stories. You will learn to reach diverse audiences and develop your own creative voice.
The course is part of the Department of Illustration Animation, known for its strong focus on storytelling across many forms and for supporting graduates who go on to become leaders in creative fields. By coming to Kingston, you’ll join a vibrant creative hub where collaboration and experimentation thrive. You’ll be part of a community known for its ethos of thinking through making and its interdisciplinary spirit, working alongside students from other courses in shared workshops and learning spaces. Guided by expert practitioners and supported by world-class facilities, you’ll develop your skills, expand your professional network, and prepare for a future in the creative industries.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and labs are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
The BA (Hons) Interaction Design course takes you on a creative journey that starts with your own experiences, moves into the spaces and environments around you, and leads to the wider communities and networks that connect people.
In your first year, you’ll explore how people sense, move, and communicate. You will use storytelling and design thinking to turn ideas into simple interactive experiences.
In your second year, you’ll investigate how design shapes environments and shared experiences. You will work with interactive spaces, immersive media, and collaborative projects.
In your final year, you’ll design for connection—creating projects that link people, communities, and digital networks through creative technology.
Interaction Design looks at how we communicate through playful, immersive, and socially relevant experiences. You will build both creative and technical skills through hands-on making, digital tools, and critical thinking. By combining art, design, and technology, you will learn to create original interactive work.
You’ll work with the latest creative technologies, including creative coding, game design, rapid prototyping, and digital fabrication. These tools will help you bring ideas to life as interactive systems, objects, and environments.
Student work covers a wide range of possibilities: playable stories, interactive objects and wearables, virtual and augmented reality, participatory installations, and responsive digital systems. Through set projects, independent research, and collaboration, you’ll apply your skills to real-world challenges, design for diverse audiences, and explore emerging industry needs.
You will graduate with a versatile, future-focused portfolio ready for professional practice.
What you’ll explore on the course:
- Using design thinking to develop and test ideas through hands-on making, prototyping, and audience engagement
- Building your creative voice by using critical thinking and reflection to tell stories that matter to you and others
- Collaborating through inclusive, participatory design to understand diverse needs and perspectives
- Designing across platforms, from screens and interactive objects to installations and immersive environments.
- Working with interactive technologies like creative coding, physical computing, and virtual or augmented reality to build responsive experiences.
- Applying your skills in real-world projects that engage audiences and address social and cultural challenges.
Year 1
You’ll be introduced to the core principles of interaction design, focusing on the body as an instrument that experiences and responds to the world around us. Through design thinking and hands-on making, you’ll develop skills to communicate clearly and thoughtfully, learning to understand and meet diverse audience needs. You’ll be introduced to human-centred design principles, exploring how empathy and observation inform creative problem-solving.
Core modules
- Practice: Sensing and Storytelling
- Process: Thinking Through Making
- Presentation: Consult...Create...Collaborate!
- Communication Design History for Illustration Animation and Interaction Design
Year 2
In the second year, your practice will expand to consider the body in space, exploring how people interact with environments and with each other. You’ll take on immersive and collaborative projects using new technologies, deepening your critical thinking and creativity by understanding how context shapes experience.
Core modules
- Practice: Instigation/Activation
- Process: Make...Test...Prototype!
- Presentation: Agency in Context
- Critical Issues in Innovation Design: Research & Practice
Year 3
In your final year, you’ll explore how bodies connect as networks, examining how groups communicate and interact across different platforms. You’ll build story worlds and design shared experiences that engage audiences, while developing your own creative voice through independent research and professional practice tailored to your goals.
Core modules
- Practice: Connections with Purpose
- Presentation: Critical and Cultural Positions
- Independent Research Project in Critical and Historical Studies
The university achieved strong results in the latest rankings published in August and September 2026, with some notable improvements and subject-level achievements:
- The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2027: Ranked 78th out of 130 institutions, climbing 16 places from 94th last year.
- Top 10 nationally for Land and Property Management (4th) and Art and Design (10th).
- Top three in London across five subjects: Land and Property Management (1st), Social Work (2nd), Architecture (3rd), Art and Design (3rd) and Nursing (3rd).
- Post-1992 universities: Ranked 4th highest.
- The Guardian University Guide 2027: Ranked 62nd out of 123 nationally.
- The Complete University Guide 2027: Ranked 88th out of 130 nationally.
- The Daily Mail University Guide 2027: Ranked 85th out of 128 nationally.
Being awarded a scholarship is a great achievement
A scholarship not only provides financial support. It also offers a rich student experience unlike any other.
At Kingston, you'll become part of our international scholars community, giving you the opportunity to:
- attend our annual scholars' event alongside senior staff and academics
- boost your career prospects through valuable networking opportunities
- meet other scholars from around the world
- enhance your CV and impress future employees with your award
- work as a TAP ambassador for Kingston University, with opportunities to contribute to marketing material and in-country activities.
Students studying Interaction Design BA (Hons) can look forward to a broad range of professional opportunities and creative careers, with roles including:
- interaction designer
- exhibition designer
- experience designer
- production designer
- design researcher
- digital designer
- producer
- project manager
- art director
- creative director
- immersive storyteller
- illustrator
- animator
- graphic designer
- games designer
- artist
- performer
- educator
- community outreach facilitator.
Our Future Skills programme is embedded within the Interaction Design BA (Hons) course curriculum and throughout the whole Kingston experience. As the demands of modern employment continue to evolve, Future Skills will play a role in shaping you to become a future-proof graduate.
The programme aims to provide you with the skills most valued by employers, such as problem-solving, digital competency and adaptability. As you progress through your degree, you'll learn to navigate, explore and apply these graduate skills, learning to demonstrate and articulate to employers how future skills give you the edge.
Teaching and assessment
The course will be delivered though workshops, lectures, seminars, individual and group tutorials, project briefs, live briefs, demonstrations, study visits, peer learning, independent learning, and study skills.
Methods of assessment for the course are by practical and written coursework.