Interaction designers help create effective and efficient ways for diverse groups of people to use a wide variety of technological products and services in their daily lives. Some of us work to create interfaces for websites and apps that help specific “user groups” achieve particular objectives, like executing bank transactions, buying plane tickets, or checking on the progress of our favorite sports teams. Others work in interdisciplinary, collaborative teams to help improve communications between healthcare providers and patients, or news organizations and their readerships, or teachers and students. We try to ensure that people can use what we create to have experiences that satisfy three criteria:

1. they are desirable,
2. they are easy to understand, and
3. they help achieve goals.

There are a number of variables that affect what professionals earn who work in the IxD (Interaction Design) and UXD (User Experience Design) sectors in the U.S. and Texas. Among these are levels of experience and the knowledge and skills someone possesses re: planning and engaging in research, product or service development, design and/or usability testing. Other factors that have a significant affect on what IxD and UXD professionals earn are where they work geographically, and the type of organization they work for. With all of that stated: information we’ve gathered from a combination of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Texas Workforce Commission, Glassdoor and Payscale indicate that the median annual income for interaction designers in Texas ranges from just over $76,000 per year to just under $89,000 per year.

Interaction designers can be hired into positions at smaller interaction and user experience design consultancies that employ five to 20 people, and they can also be hired into positions in larger organizations and companies that employ “in-house” interaction and user experience design teams. In team-based situations, interaction designers often work with professionals who have backgrounds in human + computer interaction (HCI)/computer science, marketing, anthropology and psychology.

Interaction designers are often employed to develop design strategies that guide the development of components, products and systems that are facilitated by some type of digital technology. This involves utilizing research approaches and methods that yield understandings about why particular groups of people, or “users,” are trying to meet specific goals as they engage in particular types of interactions.

Once a design strategy has been finalized, interaction designers and their collaborators use it to guide the creation of wireframes and other types of prototypes that are developed iteratively (i.e., in evolving cycles that entail multiple sequences of “build > test > analyze & interpret > build again…”). Heuristics (simply put, “trial and error”) are a big part of the jobs of most interaction and user experience designers. Most interaction design projects end with the creation of some form of a high fidelity prototype that can be used to guide manufacture and distribution.

One of the big reasons we teach the MA in IxD program at UNT’s New College in Frisco, Texas is that it’s located within 20 miles of several north Texas-based private sector and not-for-profit organizations that either operate “in-house” interaction and/or user experience design teams, or who specialize in offering these design and consulting services.

These include larger organizations that employ hundreds of people near our location in Frisco (and that may also employ many more at national or international locations), and smaller organizations that employ between five and a few dozen to a hundred professionals.

The organizations listed below all now employ professionals who have accrued knowledge and skills in interaction and user experience design;

• IDEO
• frogdesign
• Bottle Rocket
• Microsoft
• Dell
• Tekzenit
• Fjordnet
• Huge
• Intuit
• RIGA
• Crispin Porter
• Blackband
• Projekt202
• AT&T
• NBC Universal
• Accenture
• Cisco Systems
• Intel Corp.

We accept students into the MA in IxD program who have accrued either undergraduate degrees and/or professional experiences in one or more of the following disciplines/professions:

• interaction or user experience design;
• journalism;
• marketing and/or logistics;
• visual communication or graphic design;
• technical communications;
• business management;
• anthropology;
• psychology;
• sociology;
• information technology and decision sciences;
• computer science;
• information science

There are several ways that students enrolled in UNT CVAD’s MA in IxD program can obtain financial support to support their studies. These are described briefly here, and more details are available on the webpages linked to the URLs listed below.

We strongly recommend that potential MA in IxD students begin by visiting UNT’s Student Accounting and University Cashiering Services (SAUCS) to calculate what the cost of your specific tuition would be. Several variables affect this calculation, such as whether you are an “in-state,” “Oklahoma resident,” or “out-of-state” student, whether you are a U.S. citizen or a citizen of another country, whether you are a veteran of the U.S. military, etc. These are explained clearly at the webpages you’ll find at: http://studentaccounting.unt.edu/traditional-tuition-plan-calculator

and

http://studentaccounting.unt.edu/tuition-and-fees#rates

Many students in the MA in IxD program are eligible for Federal Student Aid. We encourage all of the students enrolled in our program to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) once per year.

We also encourage students in the MA in IxD program to make use of the tools and resources at the Gradsense website to help them plan and manage their costs: http://gradsense.org/gradsense

When it comes to funding that MA in IxD students can obtain through scholarships, awards, grants, fellowships, and teaching and research assistantships, the space available here is too confined to list them all. To see a much more comprehensive list of:

• UNT Toulouse Graduate School Scholarships & Awards;
• UNT-sponsored scholarships;
• Opportunities for External Grants and Scholarships

please peruse the information you’ll find by visiting: https://tgs.unt.edu/future-students/funding-your-graduate-education/awards

In particular, we encourage students enrolled in the MA in IxD program to use the information found at the URL above to learn about:

• Academic Achievement Scholarships (AAS);
• The Tuition Benefit Program (TBP);
• General Academic Scholarships (GAS);
• UNT’s Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships;
• Teaching Assistantships and Fellowships offered by the College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) and CVAD’s Department of Design (https://art.unt.edu/fellowships-assistantships).

Students who speak and write English as a second, third, or fourth language must earn a score of 79 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to be admitted into this program. The ability to actively and effectively communicate in written and spoken English on a daily basis is a necessity for all MA in IxD students.

Students do not need to take the GRE or the GMAT to gain admission into the MA in IxD.

Yes, although we recommend taking some courses (particularly ADES 5410 and ADES 5420) prior to taking others (like ADES 5430 and ADES 5440).

ADES 5450 “Data and Information Visualization” may be taken at any time by anyone who meets the graduate admission requirements described here: https://unt-ixd.com/apply/

Course descriptions for each of the learning experiences that constitute this program can be found here: https://unt-ixd.com/learn/

We’ve designed this curriculum to meet the needs of students who wish to earn the complete MA in IxD degree, and for those who may wish to enroll in a specific course or two to bolster their bases of knowledge and skill sets in interaction and user experience design.