Design Informatics MSc

Overview of the degree

Our Design Informatics programme is an advanced, full-time course for professionals and recent graduates. It is extremely hands-on, progressive and designed with industry and research at it's heart. As a student, you’ll combine cutting-edge design with data science, programming and information hacking to develop products and services that will transform lives. The MSc programme is primarily for learners from a computer science, social science or more technical background, with an aspiration to learn about design practices and methodologies. You will learn design methods, working alongside designers in the MA programme, and apply your computational skills to cutting edge creative projects.

Compulsory Courses 

The following courses are compulsory:

• Case Studies in Design Informatics 1: Analysing Design Informatics case studies and learning design research methodologies
• Data Science for Design:  Introduction to data wrangling, data visualisation and Python programming from a design perspective
• Design with Data:  Creating interactive prototypes in small groups, working with an external organisation’s data
• Histories and Futures of Technology:  Cultural and technical context for Design Informatics. Covers Digital Media, Critical Perspectives, and Introduction to Arduino
• Informatics Project Proposal 20: Writing a research proposal as a starting point for the summer MSc project

In 2026/27 you can select 20 points worth of electives in Semester 1.  Electives can be chosen from across the University, typical choices include and are not limited to  

Advice on Choosing Courses : MSc Design Informatics

The Design Informatics MSc is very heavily structured. We recommend that you take electives that will help you develop the skills you need for the future career you envisage.  Courses are offered in a large range of areas of potential interest including machine learning, data science, technology and entrepreneurship, digital media, games, art, crafting or product design.  We encourage you to look across the colleges for courses of interest to you. 

Make sure to look for the course requirements to see if a course is for you.  We do not recommend taking courses such as Machine Learning Practical, unless you are certain that you have the required pre-requisites. Some courses are extremely demanding and typically require excellent mathematical and programming skills.

Courses that are not provided by the School of Informatics are often capped. You will need the Course Organiser's permission to enrol in them.

Degree Programme Tables

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