Days: Tuesday, Thursday
Times: 7:00pm – 9:40pm
Building: Parsons 2 W 13th
Room: 1111
Date Range: 1/21/2026 – 5/12/2026
Course Description:
This course exposes students to thorough and elaborate interactive concepts and techniques for applications. It is an extensive investigation in the interface, the mechanism, the controls and the aims of interactive works. Students will learn how to design and develop complex interactive projects and understand how to undertake comprehensive research and direct their thinking process from brainstorming to the final outcome. They will be given the tools to conceive, plan and develop an interactive system and they will become aware of the importance of design’s role in contemporary media.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the semester, students will be able to:
- Use the vocabulary of interaction design to give and respond to critique productively.
- Identify and understand the needs and context of the audience for an interactive experience.
- Contextualize work within historic and current design precedents.
- Begin to develop a perspective on the relationships among design, technology, and the internet.
- Effectively deploy typography and compositional form to create interactive experiences that are compelling and dynamic.
- Conceive design systems that respond to unpredictable and variable content, situations, and end-user devices.
- Understand how interaction design patterns facilitate orientation, user behaviours, usability, and consistency.
- Understand the iterative making process of user research, prototyping, and refinement from low to high fidelity designs.
- Translate design ideas and sketches into working prototypes and built experiences.
- Document and archive screen-based work in a reflective manner.
Materials and Supplies:
Laptop
Google Drive/Dropbox Paper/Canvas/Notion
GitHub Desktop — We will be using GitHub to manage our code. Sign up if you don’t have an account already.
Figma — Figma is a modern interface design tool that is collaborative online. We will be using Figma exclusively for creating your design mockups. Sign up with your newschool.edu email for a free education account.
Are.na — A platform for collecting and organizing visual references and research. We’ll use this for mood boards and inspiration gathering.
Visual Studio Code — editor
Google Chrome — A fast, secure, and free web browser.
Vimeo — A library of interaction-related topics is available on the CD Vimeo account. Password for all videos: interaction
Webflow — A visual web development platform we’ll use for CMS-based projects. Apply for a free Classroom account with your newschool.edu email.
Webflow University — Free tutorials and courses for learning Webflow.
Grading Rubric:
- Weekly Exercises: 30%
- Project 1: 15%
- Project 2: 15%
- Final Project: 30%
- Group Discussions and Critique: 10%
Assessable Tasks:
Projects, Exercises, and Readings
Every unit will consist of lectures, assigned readings, exercises, and projects. Topics will cover historical, critical, and practical issues in interaction design. Students are expected to contribute to a culture of critique and dialogue by active participation and engagement in every class.
Lectures
On Fridays, all students will attend a Core 2 Interaction Lecture. Each lecture will frame the concepts discussed in studio from the perspective of coding which will enable students to complete the projects assigned in studio. Attendance is required and necessary for completion of this course.
CD Lecture Series
All sophomores are required to attend the CD Lecture series.
Attendance & Policies:
All CD classes adhere to the same program and university policies: https://cpe.newschool.edu/academic-policies/
Attendance Policy
For classes meeting twice a week, students are allowed 4 absences. Any absence beyond the allowed absences will result in an automatic failure (F) for the course. There are no excused absences, and doctor’s notes are not necessary.
A student is deemed tardy if a student fails to arrive within 15 minutes past the beginning of class. 2 tardies will result in an automatic absence. A student who arrives an hour past the beginning of class will be deemed absent.