Abstract

Educators can better prepare the next generation of design and creative technologists by incorporating industry practices and needs with collaborative opportunities within interdisciplinary curriculums. By creating an inclusive foundation in design education, we engage mixed cohorts of design, computing, and digital humanities students through individual and group assignments. As a result, this diverse population can directly apply a more comprehensive creative ability and communicate aesthetic understanding across their programs of study and careers. However, it is on the edges between the programs where true creativity and collaborations emerge. After establishing a shared design foundation, all cohorts complete a rigorous four-year curriculum focused on a home program and specialization. Intensive visual design, user interface, motion graphics, and 3D sequences allow design program students to develop advanced creative and technical skills. Advanced interdisciplinary collaborations are then introduced in upper classes to utilize these specialist skills in industry and research-based projects for retailers, publishers, tech companies, healthcare, and museums. As a result, the shared design foundation, advanced discipline specialties, and industry engagements allow student teams to work together cohesively and achieve outstanding results within these complicated interactive spaces. Through these experiences, students form a common design-based language, appreciation, and knowledge that prepare them for their new careers.