University of Trento MSc in Human-Computer Interaction
University of Trento

University of Trento

MSc in Human-Computer Interaction

Rovereto, Italy

MSc

2 years

English

Full time

Sep 2026

EUR 6,500 / per year **

On-Campus

* *for non European Union (EU) students resident abroad: 4 March 2026 for European Union (EU) students and non-EU students with permanent residence in Italy: from 9 February to 29 May 2026

** **EU 340€-3400€ (fee range based on personal income and merit); Non-EU: 1000€-6500€ (fee range based on merit only, i.e. score in the application evaluation).

Key Summary

About: The MSc in Human-Computer Interaction at The University of Trento trains professionals to study people and design technology. It mixes social-cognitive, computer science, and methodological tracks covering cognitive science, user-centered design, prototyping, affective computing, and qualitative and quantitative methods. Students learn to plan user-centered interfaces, run simulations, observations and experiments, analyze decision-making across levels, and carry out applied interdisciplinary research.

Career Outcomes: Graduates can work as UX designer, interaction designer, usability researcher, product designer, HCI researcher, or user researcher. They can join tech companies, research labs, design agencies, organizations, or academia applying human-centered design, prototyping, accessibility, and evaluation methods.

Human-Computer Interaction aims at investigating people and their actions as a starting point for the purposes of technology design. It provides an effective approach to address the many challenges (public engagement, participation, privacy, emotion) currently faced by computer sciences.

The ultimate goal of the Master is to train a new generation of researchers and professionals, who can understand the complexity of human cognition, behavior, and emotion at a micro-meso- and macro-level and are able to embed this knowledge in new computing artifacts and technologies matching the most diverse human values, interests and needs.

About the Master in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

The Master aims at training professional figures and researchers with a wide range of multidisciplinary skills to understand, design, and evaluate new interaction possibilities between human beings and IT devices.

The Master is structured into three specialization areas:

  • Social-cognitive area: brain/mind interaction and cognitive ties;
  • Computer science area: user-interfaces; user-centered design; participatory design; human-machine interaction; prototyping of interactive systems, affective computing, e-learning;
  • Methodological area: qualitative and quantitative methodologies; visual, ethic, and epistemological planning.

Specific learning outcomes are:

  • Acquaintance with simulation, observation, and experimental methods in the study of the interaction between human beings and complex systems;
  • Ability to plan a user-centered design of user interfaces;
  • Theoretical and practical knowledge of communication and decision-making processes;
  • Secure knowledge of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis;
  • Capability to analyze decision-making processes, at an individual and collective level, in organizational, economic, and social contexts;
  • Capability to autonomously carry out basic and applied research activity.

By virtue of its interdepartmental nature, the course:

  • Offers an integrated program that allows students to pursue their own research interests in an interdisciplinary research environment;
  • Fosters the development of research skills in areas that several departments are concerned with;
  • Provides specialized skills that are not included in traditional degree courses.