This course is fundamentally structured around the methodological processes of Design Thinking, service design, and strategic design, incorporating creative problem-solving (CPS) processes, agile project methodologies, and collaborative and co-creative dynamics.

“Interactive Design Projects I” is oriented toward facilitating the design of strategies applicable to digital product design, from a global and articulated analytical perspective that consistently places the end user at the centre of the project in order to optimise the user experience. The course develops projectual ethnographic research processes derived from the relationship between anthropology and design, as well as methodologies intrinsic to Design Thinking, analysing, selecting, and applying the most suitable tools according to previously established criteria. Relevant creativity techniques and dynamics are implemented to generate innovative and viable solutions, while methodological testing and implementation processes are also developed.

The course includes an essential practical dimension, enabling students to apply strategies and tools in real contexts so that they acquire the ability to lead, coordinate, and facilitate processes, both in designing strategies tailored to specific challenges and in managing individual and group dynamics and methodologies.

An intensive introductory course focused on the development of websites, web applications, and generic interfaces using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, CSS preprocessors, and JavaScript.

The aim of this course is not solely to achieve an advanced level of static web development, but also to familiarise students with efficient design and development systems, including component-based work, states, and other methodologies that support both designers and developers in their professional practice.

This course is intended as an introduction to the fundamentals of JavaScript programming, as well as its application in the development and design of interaction for web user interfaces.

The objective of this course is to provide students with the foundations necessary to work on usability and user experience in relation to designed products and services. The techniques and tools learned will enable students to adopt a user-centred design approach, understand user behaviours, needs, and expectations, and thereby explore the possibilities of design in relation to interaction and human communication.

Within a social context where technology and communication occupy a central position, this course seeks to identify the keys to understanding the social transformations generated by digital advancements, enabling students to propose design solutions that respond to contemporary needs. The course analyses the paradigms of the network society, where opportunities emerge to innovate and develop a voice in an increasingly globally interconnected world. Learning takes place through an exploration of the social contexts that have generated change, reflecting on starting points and key elements necessary to understand the path leading to today’s reality. Students will examine how ideas that once seemed impossible have become feasible, and how different schools of thought influence the use and implementation of digital tools. The course also explores design ethics and the intention behind design actions, encouraging students to actively contribute to change.

This course explores Graphical User Interface Design (UI Design) in depth, addressing its methodological, creative, and technical dimensions. Students will work from the fundamentals of graphic design applied specifically to digital environments through to the advanced construction of professional Design Systems, using methodologies such as Atomic Design.

Through an advanced mastery of Figma, students will engage with the complete workflow — from defining style guides incorporating accessibility principles to creating component libraries and high-fidelity interactive prototypes. The course also examines how design decisions impact the user experience (UX), ensuring that deliverables are suitable for later implementation in HTML and CSS, while guaranteeing a final outcome in the form of a professional portfolio adapted to the demands of today’s digital market.

This is an elective course within the Master’s Degree in Interactive Design that studies narrative as an element that structures design work. In some cases, narrative appears as part of an Interactive Design project; in others, the narrative itself becomes interactive, offering possibilities that cannot be found in traditional storytelling media. The course begins with a study of general narrative theory before moving on to explore the specific characteristics of interactive storytelling.

What are the possible functions and purposes of animation within interactive design? The designer is responsible for directing the entry, behaviour, and exit of each element. UX choreography should provide responses and inform users about the outcomes of interactions.
Feedforward helps communicate possible interactions and user expectations, enabling a better understanding of how elements function and fit together.
Spatial awareness helps orient users within their environment and clarify relationships between interface elements.
Focus guides user attention, clarifies moments of change, and contributes to a brand’s tone of voice, prompting us to ask: “If the brand could move, how would it express its personality?”
UX animation provides a narrative for users in their interaction with applications, creating relationships between interface objects that guide comprehension and decision-making, enhance functionality, optimise the perception of experience, attract attention, and provide feedback.

This course is therefore conceived as an immersion into the particular characteristics of interactive animation, its ability to support navigation, improve readability and information clarity, and create memorable and engaging environments for users. «Animation is not about making your app cool. It is about providing your users with the experience they expect”. Nick Babich.

This course aims to introduce students to methods and techniques for the creation, acquisition, and editing of three-dimensional models to ensure correct visualisation and interaction with 3D objects and spaces in Augmented Reality (AR), while also introducing students to their optimisation and adaptation for interaction systems in Extended Realities (XR).

Given the limitations of ECTS credits and teaching hours in relation to the breadth of content that could be covered, a selection of content, methodologies, and tools is made in order to provide students with a foundational knowledge base that can be interconnected with the rest of the Master’s programme.

In the first module, students will study the principles and techniques of polygonal modelling and their relationship with the representation and optimisation of 3D objects for Augmented Reality. This module primarily introduces students to tools for preparing 3D objects for the creation of virtual environments.

In the second module, students will study and practise the acquisition and optimisation of 3D models through the technique of «photogrammetry», providing them with different tools that enable the generation of original 3D models, space capture, «retopology», and digital sculpting, applied to the optimisation and repair of polygonal meshes. Subsequently, UV mapping techniques will be explored in preparation for capturing textures obtained through photogrammetry in low-polygon models.

In the third module, students will be introduced to techniques related to materials, texture maps, scene lighting, the import of external models, and export processes for navigation and visualisation in Augmented Reality.

This is an elective course within the Master’s in Interactive Design and explores the possibilities of interaction based on the integration of virtual elements into real environments. Thanks to the widespread adoption of smartphones, Augmented Reality is now accessible to everyone without the need for large or expensive devices. At the same time, industry-specific software provides free or educational licences for creators, making these tools accessible to students.

In this course, students will gain hands-on experience with specialised applications for the development of Augmented Reality projects and evaluate their applicability across educational, public, and commercial sectors through a range of practical exercises.

This course focuses on research and strategic planning, proposal development, and the implementation of interactive resources in physical and digital environments through collaborative processes and dynamics aimed at optimising the user experience of a specific service or digital product.

The course is structured around the methodological process of Design Thinking with a transversal and transdisciplinary approach, alongside the analysis of the most suitable tools and methods for each challenge. It incorporates Creative Problem Solving (CPS), agile methodologies, Design Thinking resources, and co-creation and collaborative working dynamics.

Interactive Design Projects II is oriented towards facilitating the design of strategies applicable to service design, UX design, and digital product design from a global perspective focused on user analysis and user experience through qualitative research methods. The range of resources employed involves considering a broad spectrum of tools to define the most appropriate strategic design approach for the challenge at hand. All processes developed through strategic design and Design Thinking are also directed towards innovation in user experience, generating integrative processes and proposals that are useful, usable, efficient, effective, desirable, and viable. This course is based on a real-world case study within a limited timeframe, emphasising its essential practical nature to apply the strategies, resources, and tools previously introduced in Interactive Design Projects I. In doing so, students strengthen and consolidate their ability to lead, coordinate, and facilitate the processes required in highly complex projects, drawing on a well-founded and accurate holistic vision to achieve an innovative perspective and foster an integrated understanding of both the challenge presented and the value proposition developed.

Interaction and Language is a theoretical-practical course in which students analyse the intersections between art, design, science, and technology in experimental digital environments. Through the exploration of movements such as new media, net art, and other related practices, the course examines the use of language and interaction codes and their possibilities.

Physical Computing refers to the design of objects and spaces that react and respond to changes in their environment. It is based on the construction of devices that incorporate microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators, which may also include communication capabilities with networks or other devices. As a result, students will develop physical interactive systems that, through the use of software and hardware, can detect and respond to signals from the analogue world. In a broader sense, Physical Computing provides a creative framework for understanding the relationship between human beings and the digital world.

The idea that “a good image is worth a thousand words” has become deeply embedded even in popular culture. However, many of the individuals responsible for creating such images — doctors, geographers, physicists, and others — do not come from the field of visual communication.

In reality, the relationship between ideas, words, notation systems, and representation is far more complex than might be expected. The evolution of data visualisation systems demonstrates that this is an interdisciplinary activity that requires, first and foremost, a solid theoretical foundation.

The progressive process of digitalisation that has accompanied us for years has placed an unprecedented volume of data and multiple tools for *working* with it at our disposal. Even so, the ability to transform that data into information and knowledge — and the skills necessary to create effective narrative structures in today’s communication landscape — still requires expert intervention.

This course aims to provide the conceptual foundations, initial references, and practical tools needed to experiment with and learn different methods of representing data, “drawing what we know” and “making the invisible visible.”

The Practicum, or External Internships, is an essential component for students wishing to pursue a professional career in design studios, communication consultancies, strategic design firms, or image and communication departments across organisations of any kind.
Its objective is to develop experiences that enrich students’ future professional practice. Through internships in companies or institutions, students will have the opportunity to refine professional working methods, learn how to make decisions within short timeframes and under high-pressure situations, often based on incomplete and changing information, and develop a strong capacity for solving difficult and complex problems in highly uncertain contexts. This practical experience enables students to apply strategies that can only be acquired through direct exposure to day-to-day professional practice.

The Master’s Final Project (TFM) involves the completion of a project in which students apply and develop the knowledge acquired throughout the Master’s programme. The project must focus on the application of the generic competencies associated with the qualification. The importance of the TFM lies in its ability to foster students’ capacity to select a topic aligned with their interests, plan a process of analysis and study of such topic, establish objectives, and present and defend

a solid and well-justified response to the challenge posed in a formal manner. Consequently, the completion of the TFM enables students to develop analytical skills, problem-solving abilities, and the capacity to assimilate and present results effectively.

The primary purpose of the Master’s Thesis stems from its integrative nature, as it enables students to demonstrate that they possess all the skills, resources and tools required to develop high-quality, innovative projects—whether for creative or commercial application—and to implement valuable new strategies within complex organisations.

With a view to students’ future career prospects, the Master’s Thesis may draw on activities related to design studies, institutions, businesses, the entertainment industry, e-learning, events, or companies specialising in communications, advertising and online marketing, interactive art and net art, as well as social and health-related objectives, amongst others; in all cases, interaction must play a central role in the final proposal.

As a public institution, ESD offers an extensive network of collaborations with companies, organisations and institutions at both national and international level, while maintaining its social commitment through publicly regulated tuition fees adapted to students’ income levels.

We place great value on intellectual education and the practical application of theoretical content by incorporating it into the development of real-world projects, many of which are carried out in collaboration with external companies or institutions. The MDI programme features ongoing individual and group mentoring, with a strong focus on innovation and experimentation. Learning is “the process of transforming all our experience through thought, action and emotion, and thereby transforming ourselves as we continue to construct perceptions of external reality within our life story”; thus, through a humanistic approach, design thinking facilitates project development and the optimisation of learning.

With a maximum of 20 students per group and a faculty that combines academic expertise with professional practice, the programme develops within an approachable and supportive environment that enhances the quality of teaching and learning. We aim for intrinsic motivation to become a key ingredient in the learning process, fostering a stronger learning curve, greater depth of understanding, and an educational experience rooted in the enjoyment of learning itself.

The transversality between the Master’s own content, its interaction with society and ethical values, and its connection with other disciplines that are essential to the development of complex projects, generates a transdisciplinary strategic capacity that enables students to lead complex initiatives. Particular attention is given to ethical, environmental, and inclusive values, as well as to the social responsibility of design. Co-creation, collaboration through distributed thinking, and collective intelligence are considered fundamental for preparing students for a competent professional career. The programme also recognises the importance of the skills required for the future professional landscape, including critical, innovative, and creative thinking, advanced technological capabilities, and communication and collaboration skills for leading multidisciplinary teams. Strategic methodological skills, «agile» management capabilities, and the ability to adapt to increasingly uncertain and rapidly changing environments are also considered highly relevant. Likewise, the programme promotes ethnographic research approaches, drawing on anthropology, sociology, psychology, and behavioural sciences to achieve a holistic perspective that facilitates the optimisation of proposed solutions.

Design Thinking is widely used in developed societies to foster creative solutions to complex problems. It has the capacity to shape human interactions, promote inclusion, and propose responses to contemporary social needs, acting as a driver of social change and sustainability while improving quality of life. The effective application of design enables the correction of existing problems and the invention of new ways of doing things. Interaction Design facilitates the creation of meaningful relationships between people and the products or services they use.

The Master’s in Interactive Design at ESD Madrid aims to educate design professionals capable of leading complex strategic projects through a training approach that supports a holistic understanding of the challenges addressed, both from an intellectual perspective and through the practical application of acquired knowledge. The programme is grounded in the development of key competencies for a constantly changing world, including critical and strategic thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and co-creative collaboration.

As a public institution, ESD Madrid offers an extensive network of collaborations with companies, organisations, and institutions at both national and international levels, while maintaining its strong social commitment.