Qualification Goals of the M. Sc. Interaction Research and Design

Irrespective of one's own higher education degree and the skills and knowledge acquired in the process, one can gain further qualifications in the following areas:

Scientific and design skills and the ability to engage in qualified gainful employment.

Graduates are able to analyse problems in an interdisciplinary manner, taking into account design, empirical and informatics aspects, and to develop innovative solutions in accordance with the state of the art in science. They can also apply these synergies in complex situations.

Design

  • Graduates acquire further explicit expert knowledge to analyse and evaluate the human-centred aspect of product design. Within the framework of projects, the acquired design skills can be actively introduced into the human-centred development of product ideas/prototypes.

  • Graduates acquire comprehensive, advanced knowledge in the field of agile product development, which enables them to analyse and evaluate products as well as to develop their own ideas and implementation options.

  • Graduates combine interdisciplinary design aspects with technological knowledge in order to develop future-oriented technologies.

  • Graduates acquire extensive in-depth knowledge of design languages and communication processes that help them to integrate interaction and participation concepts into the design of products.

  • Graduates have in-depth knowledge of the analysis and evaluation of interface concepts, their visual design and multi-vocal communication. They can implement these competences independently in the development of projects.

  • Graduates learn to apply their acquired knowledge in a practical way in projects with cooperation partners from business and industry.

Empiricism

  • Graduates acquire a solid psychological knowledge that is of particular relevance for the design of future human-technology interactions. They are able to specifically address the psychological processes of perception, emotion and cognition and are familiar with the underlying biological mechanisms of these phenomena. In addition, they have sound knowledge in the areas of personality and social psychology.

  • Graduates are able to access the current state of research in a scientific focus area on the basis of primary literature, reflect on it, evaluate it and develop independent research questions.

  • Graduates acquire in-depth methodological knowledge that enables them to conduct and evaluate empirical studies.

  • Graduates acquire advanced knowledge in the basic disciplines of psychology.

  • Graduates acquire a basic knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research approaches in psychological research.

  • Graduates obtain an overview of cognitive processing in basic and application-oriented terms and can use this knowledge for the systematic research and application of cognitive phenomena.

Computer Science

  • Graduates acquire an advanced and differentiated inventory of methods (also from the disciplines of design and empiricism) that they can apply in developing solutions to challenges in the field of informatics.

  • Graduates possess the ability to analyse and interpret different teaching perspectives and their conceptualisations, strengths and weaknesses.

  • Graduates can independently draw on interdisciplinary problem-solving strategies and thus further develop the current state of research.

  • Graduates are familiar with in-depth principles of computer science and can additionally fall back on design and empirical principles and integrate these into the interdisciplinary further development of computer science.

  • Due to their in-depth, interdisciplinary knowledge, graduates are particularly able to develop solutions for complex, imprecisely defined tasks and to evaluate corresponding designs according to the state of the art. For this purpose, they also resort to unusual methods such as speculative design.

  • Graduates are able to evaluate the limits of current research and technology and derive development potential for the future from this.

Personal Development

  • Graduates can make scientifically sound decisions, taking into account interdisciplinary human-centred, technological, regulatory and ethical aspects.

  • Graduates can cooperate interdisciplinarily with representatives of other disciplines and find a common language. This helps them to solve tasks responsibly and to integrate involved interest groups, taking into account the respective group composition.

  • Graduates are familiar with the interdisciplinary rules of good scientific practice and know how to integrate them in the development of new ideas.

  • Due to their interdisciplinary education, graduates are able to independently develop possible solutions and adapt them to social backgrounds.

  • Graduates have developed an interdisciplinary professional self-image and are able to use their technical, methodological and social competence within the framework of professional values and are able to expand their skills through criticism by implementing it in their own actions.

  • Graduates are able to work on information-related problems in a team-oriented manner and to develop approaches to solutions and act in accordance with the basic democratic understanding.

  • Graduates are able to act responsibly within the framework of project management in a goal-oriented manner, taking into account social and economic requirements.