Experience Designers are human-centered design thinkers and creators who combine psychology and innovation to design products, processes, environments, and strategies that meet peoples' needs and exceed their expectations.
xdMFA is a 3-year online Master of Fine Arts degree designed for practicing professionals and full-time caregivers. We welcome formally trained designers as well as those new to people-driven design. Join us if you want to use design to produce better outcomes at functional and emotional levels, regardless of industry or sector.
Develop as a Creator and Innovator
In our Master of Fine Arts program, you will develop skills to create high-fidelity product and service prototypes that get results and improve people's lives.
Experience Designers are needed in healthcare, corporations, design agencies, government, hospitality, education, event planning, and non-profits—anywhere people are affected by design.
Produce Insights
Develop research skills and deep-dive into organizations, products, services, and cultures to pinpoint where your design work will make the most meaningful impact.
Our students use research methods to discover ways existing design creates frustrating experiences and then innovate outcomes that match peoples' values.
Become a Leader That Empowers
Learn leadership skills to effectively guide creative teams and partner with stakeholders to unlock practical, people-driven solutions to complex and interconnected problems.
Our students come from many walks of life and areas of expertise. Innovation is transdisciplinary.
Join a Community of Learners
Partner with a cohort of peers from different disciplines. Each week, you will inspire each other by collaborating on coursework, gaining new perspectives, and becoming more inclusive designers.
xdMFA graduates create plans that communicate a design idea's intent and how it will achieve its aims. They develop prototypes that can be implemented and tested.
Gain Portable Design Skills
Work closely with accomplished professors who share feedback at every step of the design process. Like the community of peers, your professors will push you to become thoughtful, meaningful, responsible designers who have the skills to affect change in whatever industry you choose.
Most people can't quit their lives to get their master's degree. Keep your life and keep learning in asynchronous critiques and one weekend travel experience per semester.
Be Inspired by Travel
Gain new perspectives by exploring designed products and services in four locations with your cohort during Destination Weekends. Come together as a group to share and examine experiences and collectively grow as designers.
Our alumni are already shaping the future as marketing directors, design educators, UX design researchers, escape room designers, product design directors, game designers, and event designers.
Lead the Future of Design
Train to be a leader in the cutting-edge and quickly growing field of Experience Design. Our graduates are redefining the future of design and are changing the world through research-based, people-driven methods.
Whatever your organization, your products and services can either satisfy needs or can go beyond usability and create memorable experiences. With xdMFA, you can design higher.
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A Brief Introduction
Learn more about the xdMFA program from our Graduate Director and faculty, Dennis Cheatham.
Have a question or want to chat about Experience Design? Contact us. We'd love to meet you.
People-Driven
Partner with people to discover unarticulated needs and co-create culturally relevant outcomes.
Research-Intensive
Learn and apply design research methods to design, develop, deploy, and test innovations.
Experience-Centered
Integrate service, interaction, and communication design processes to enhance accessibility and engage the senses.
Detailed Design
Create multisensory design prototypes and plans with a high degree of formal and functional detail.