Bachelor in Interaction Design
Malmö, Sweden
Bachelor's degree
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Jan 2027
TUITION FEES
SEK 520,000
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* this is the deadline for national round. Non-EU/EEA students who require a residence permit should apply during international admissions round opening mid-October 2026.
Key Summary
About: The Bachelor in Interaction Design at Malmö University trains professional designers to shape interactive products, services and environments. You’ll learn programming, prototyping for web and mobile, physical fabrication (laser-cutting, 3-D printing), basic electronics and microprocessors for IoT and wearables. The programme stresses human-centered, participatory design, stakeholder engagement, ethics, sustainability and research-based practice.
Career Outcomes: Graduates adapt and can work as interaction designers, user experience (UX) designers, user interface (UI) designers, service designers, web designers or IoT/physical-computing designers. You’ll gain management and industry collaboration experience and can continue to a master’s; alumni have joined IDEO, IBM, Sony Mobile and Fjord.
Interaction design is an exciting field at the leading edge of technology innovation. Interaction designers aim to create experiences with products, services, and environments that are not just useful and usable, but very often pleasurable, expressive, and desirable. Learning interaction design is a matter of building a repertoire of methods, skills and theoretical perspectives. Importantly, you also develop a sensitivity to the critical role of stakeholders in design, the implications of design in society and your sense of interaction aesthetics.
What is Interaction Design?
Interaction design is an exciting field at the cutting edge of technology innovation. Interaction designers aim to create experiences using products, services and environments that are not just useful and functional, but often expressive and desirable.
Learning interaction design is a matter of building a repertoire of methods, skills and theoretical perspectives. Importantly, you will also develop a sensitivity to the critical role of stakeholders in design, the implications of design in society, and your sense of interaction aesthetics.
The innovative, considered and well-executed design adds value to products and services. Interaction designers seek to understand the people and situations they are designing for, and, drawing on their mastery of interactive technology and forms of interactivity, design artefacts and experiences to improve situations.
During the programme, we will conduct extensive research, sketch, prototype and test — not just to get the right design, but to get the design right. Designers very often take the role of advocate for the user and are skilled in mediating complex issues and relationships with stakeholders involved in the design and production process.
Interaction design at Malmö University
Interaction design starts with new students every autumn semester. This programme at Malmö University is not like other digital-design-related education. We set ourselves apart in three main ways:
The design of interaction
We understand interaction design as part of the tradition of design, with a focus on the design of interactivity — not just how an artefact looks or what it does, but how it responds and how it feels to use. Exploring and expressing interactivity requires technical skills. As such, you will have to opportunity to acquire and develop basic programming skills throughout the programme. We teach programming in a way that is relevant to interaction design and that any motivated student can learn. You will prototype interactive experiences across a range of devices and platforms, including for web and mobile.
The products and services interaction designers create are not just software. We have a strong tradition and world-class facilities for working with physical formats, and you will learn techniques such as laser-cutting and 3-D printing. Together with basic electronic skills and a microprocessor, you will be able to develop concepts related to the Internet of Things, wearables and other forms of smart products.
You won’t just make good-looking mock-ups, you'll bring your ideas to life.
Responsible, sensitive design
To design is to make a change in the world; whether the designer intends to or not, their work has wider implications. Our education instils a responsible, sensitive design approach which takes issues of ethics and sustainability seriously and focuses on design with human values in mind. Moreover, at Malmö University we have a strong tradition in participatory design approaches, designing not just for users but with users and other stakeholders. Interaction design can be done not just for commercial purposes but also to serve and challenge the pressing societal issues of our time.
Research-based teaching
At Malmö University, you will not only pick up the applied skills of an interaction designer — conducting fieldwork, programming, making mock-ups, creating concept videos, and so on — but you will also engage with cutting-edge forms of interactivity and deep, theoretical perspectives on design and interaction. You will develop reflective, critical approaches, understanding not only how to create, but also when and why (or why not). This is particularly important in a technology-related field such as interaction design, where developments happen quickly and practitioners need to be able to make sense of new technologies and shifting practices.
Organisation
Interaction design focuses on the design of interactive products, services, and environments. Through concept development, prototyping, and evaluation, students develop mobile as well as web and application-based interactivity. This could be anything from websites to smart clothes, from computer games to interactive environments.
Interaction Designers thus create useful, interactive, utility-oriented design, expressive design for pleasure, as well as critical and aesthetic-oriented design. Interaction design is an area that has emerged in response to the digital properties of the material. The discipline borrows theory and methods from traditional design, informatics, social sciences, humanities, and arts.
This three-year interaction design programme has a strong focus on the user-centred design of digital artefacts. The education is rooted in the strong Scandinavian design tradition of involving users in the design process. This particular approach is sought-after by design and technology companies worldwide. Students are trained to think critically and to challenge existing technology as a way to creatively reflect on the possibilities for new types of interaction.
After graduation, the student should be well-prepared for professional work in interaction design or post-graduate education in the field. In addition to self-employment, work opportunities include interaction design at companies, consultancies, or cultural institutions. Potential specialisms encompass web and consumer design, product development, mobile technologies, and usability.
Study abroad, internships, and electives
The fifth term is an elective term. That means you can choose to take a course on a completely different topic, but you can also choose to immerse yourself in a specialisation of your choice. Alternatively, by choosing to do an internship, you can experience the professional practice of interaction design and gain valuable industry connections. A further alternative is to study abroad, which can be an excellent opportunity to expand your personal and academic horizons.
Degree Project
The programme's sixth and final semester consists of a thesis. You will undertake a major independent project, the content and quality of which is equivalent to the input level for master's degree studies.
This programme leads to a bachelor's degree in Interaction Design.
Courses within the programme
Autumn 2025 - Semester 1
- Interaction Design: Methods I (KD400B), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Programming (KD402D), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Interaction design: Making and Prototyping (KD415B), 15 credits, compulsory
- Interaction Design: Graphical User Interfaces (KD401B), 7.5 credits, compulsory
Spring 2026 - Semester 2
- Interaction Design: Methods II (KD400C), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Interaction Design: Research (KD416A), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Interaction design: Studio (KD417A), 7.5 credits, compulsory
Autumn 2026 - Semester 3
- Interaction Design: Interactivity (KD414A), 15 credits, compulsory
- Interaction Design: Tangible and Embodied Interaction (KD409A), 15 credits, compulsory
Spring 2027 - Semester 4
- Interaction Design in Society (KD418A), 15 credits, compulsory
- Interaction Design: Studio II (KD410C), 15 credits, compulsory
Spring 2027 - Semester 6
- Interaction Design: Research Methods in Interaction Design (KD412A), 7.5 credits, compulsory
- Interaction Design: Degree project (KD413A), 22.5 credits, compulsory
Knowledge and understanding
To receive a bachelor's degree in Interaction Design, the student shall:
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding in the main field of study, including knowledge of the field's disciplinary foundation, understanding of the field's applicable methodologies, specialised study in some aspect of the field, and awareness of current research issues.
Competencies and skills
To receive a bachelor's degree in Interaction Design, the student shall:
- Demonstrate the ability to search for, gather, evaluate, and critically interpret relevant information for a formulated problem, as well as the ability to discuss phenomena, issues, and situations critically.
- Demonstrate the ability to identify, formulate, and solve problems autonomously and to complete tasks within predetermined time frames.
- Demonstrate the ability to present and discuss information, problems, and solutions in speech and writing, as well as in dialogue with different audiences.
- Demonstrate the skills required to work autonomously in their main field of study.
Evaluation and approach
To receive a bachelor's degree in Interaction Design, the student shall:
- Demonstrate the ability to make assessments in their main field of study, informed by relevant disciplinary, social, and ethical issues.
- Demonstrate insight into the role of knowledge in society and the responsibility of the individual for how knowledge is used.
- Demonstrate the ability to identify needs for further knowledge and ongoing learning.
Given the growing prominence of good design, interaction designers find themselves in demand. Governmental agencies also value interaction designers in designing and improving access to public services. With an education in interaction design, you may be suited for several different roles beyond interaction design, including user experience design, user interface design, service design, digital design, web design, and much more.
With a focus on teaching contemporary technologies and methods as well as forward-thinking perspectives from research, you will adapt well to a changing labour market and be well-suited to continue your education through a master’s programme. During your education, you will gain collaborative experience with industry partners as well as your peers by working on a variety of different briefs through which you will develop your project management skills.
Our students have gone on to careers in leading companies such as Anima Connected, Arduino Verkstad, BitCraze, Cybercom, Fjord, IBM, IDEO, inUSE, Massive Entertainment, Sony Mobile, TetraPak, Topp, Ustwo and Visma.