Design Research MSDes
Major: Design Research
Degree Awarded: Master of Science in Design Research (MSDes)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Minimum Required Credits: 48.0
Co-op Option: None
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 50.0499
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 04.0401
About the Program
We train question makers, strategists, collaborative leaders, and design thinkers! The Dexel Ms Design Research (MsDes) is the innovative, interdisciplinary, and distinguished program for you to become a design leader in the 21st-century workplace.
Created to serve students across all design disciplines, creatives, and those looking to make a career change, our program is a self-tailored, yet structured and guided, program. This engagement-oriented program includes extensive coursework in social interest design, design-led strategy, and future-oriented technologies. Students in the program produce a wide range of new knowledge related to emerging technologies, services, spaces, products, and experiences. Design research in our program is a way of creating new knowledge that drives innovative design processes and collaborative problem-solving.
Alumni from our program work across multiple industries, in complex settings with interdisciplinary teams including the non-profit, academic, health, product development, fashion, manufacturing, built environment, and financial sectors. Students in our Design Research Program are specifically educated and challenged in design and strategy, across diverse contexts. All are exposed to a wide range of research and design practices through multiple collaborations with both academic and professional partners.
This 48-credit program is can be taken either full, or part-time, and we offer a range of modalities through our coursework to suit all schedules, including those with full-time work commitments. Our diverse range of current and past self-developed student topics include: circular design for service design futures, assistive tools for those in need of ambulatory access and transportation, shelter systems in the nonprofit disaster relief space, artificial intelligence and blockchain for human uses, services for sustainable living, health and community in education. The program includes making, research, fabrication, collaboration, and human-centered design thinking. The MS in Design Research program is part of the nationally-ranked Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, housed in award-winning, technologically enhanced facilities, and taught by faculty who have worked at the top of their fields. Situated in the Department of Architecture, Design & Urbanism, the program benefits from its associations with faculty and students in the Interior Architecture & Design and Urban Strategy graduate programs. The program focuses on providing a forum for students to pursue paths of inquiry and investigation within design, technology, social impact, community, environmental design, and health. This flexible program operates with a core curriculum that is built on and augmented by a customized set of electives and the second-year thesis sequence. The curriculum, though self-directed, is grounded in research, studio class work, philosophy, theory, and iterative making. Through deep cross-collaboration, our students create cutting-edge solutions and speculative environments to study culture and human-centered design.
Admission Requirements
Undergraduate baccalaureate degree in or related to design.
Additional Information
For more information, visit the Graduate Admissions webpage.
Degree Requirements
Core Requirements | ||
ARTH 530 | History of Modern Design * | 3.0 |
or CCM 704 | Research Methods in Communication, Culture and Media | |
or CRTV 620 | Research Methods and Assessment of Creative and Innovative Thinking | |
or PSY 510 | Research Methods I | |
or URBS 530 | Quantitative Methods & Reasoning for Urban Strategists | |
or VSST 501 | Contemporary Art Issues | |
DSRE 620 | Design Problem Solving | 3.0 |
DSRE 625 | Technologies of Making | 3.0 |
DSRE 630 | Data Visualization for Design Professionals | 3.0 |
DSRE 635 | Translational Design Research | 3.0 |
DSRE 641 | Contemporary Design Theory | 3.0 |
DSRE 645 | Design Research Thesis Proposal | 3.0 |
DSRE 650 | Thesis Research and Practicum | 3.0 |
DSRE 750 | Thesis in Design Research I | 3.0 |
DSRE 760 | Thesis in Design Research II | 3.0 |
DSRE 770 | Thesis in Design Research III | 3.0 |
Electives ** | 15.0 | |
Total Credits | 48.0 |
- *
Or other course with advisor approval
- **
Select 15.0 credits from 500-600 level courses, including I599, I699, T580, T680, in AS-I, CRTV, DIGM, DSRE, ENTP, ENVS, EPI, FASH, IDM, INFO, PBHL, RMER
Sample Plan of Study
Full-time Sample Plan of Study
First Year | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fall | Credits | Winter | Credits | Spring | Credits |
ARTH 530, CCM 704, CRTV 620, PSY 510, URBS 530, or VSST 501* | 3.0 | DSRE 630 | 3.0 | DSRE 641 | 3.0 |
DSRE 620 | 3.0 | DSRE 635 | 3.0 | DSRE 645 | 3.0 |
DSRE 625 | 3.0 | Elective | 3.0 | DSRE 650 | 3.0 |
9 | 9 | 9 | |||
Second Year | |||||
Fall | Credits | Winter | Credits | Spring | Credits |
DSRE 750 | 3.0 | DSRE 760 | 3.0 | DSRE 770 | 3.0 |
Electives | 6.0 | Electives | 6.0 | ||
9 | 9 | 3 | |||
Total Credits 48 |
- *
Or other course with advisor approval
Part-time Sample Plan of Study
First Year (Part-Time) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fall | Credits | Winter | Credits | Spring | Credits | Summer | Credits |
DSRE 620 | 3.0 | DSRE 630 | 3.0 | DSRE 645 | 3.0 | Electives | 6.0 |
DSRE 625 | 3.0 | DSRE 635 | 3.0 | DSRE 650 | 3.0 | ||
6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | ||||
Second Year (Part-Time) | |||||||
Fall | Credits | Winter | Credits | Spring | Credits | Summer | Credits |
DSRE 750 | 3.0 | DSRE 760 | 3.0 | DSRE 641 | 3.0 | ARTH 530, CCM 704, CRTV 620, PSY 510, URBS 530, or VSST 501* | 3.0 |
Elective | 3.0 | Elective | 3.0 | DSRE 770 | 3.0 | Elective | 3.0 |
6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | ||||
Total Credits 48 |
- *
Or other course with advisor approval
Note: Some terms are less than the 4.5-credit minimum required (considered half-time status) of graduate programs to be considered financial aid eligible. As a result, aid will not be disbursed to students these terms.