Master of design

Promoting design that actively shapes industry, organisations, and daily life, this programme addresses societal challenges, new technologies, and complexity. Students can specialise in service design, interaction design, or industrial design, and develop their own unique identities as designers.

What will you learn?
The programme has a broad approach to design, emphasising its relevance and importance in contemporary society. While founded on an Industrial Design tradition, it now equally includes interaction design, service design, and systems oriented design. Students can choose to specialise in one of these fields or take a hybrid approach.

This programme reflects the emerging fields of design that respond to societal challenges, new technologies, and increased complexity. It encourages students to create services, products, and interactions that delight, improve, and challenge.

AHO’s programme philosophy focuses on methods and processes, aesthetics, and communication, while also placing design practice within an ethical, sustainable, and critical socio-cultural framework. Graduates of this programme adopt a holistic approach to problem-solving and innovation.

Designers educated at AHO:

• Establish an independent professional area of work, contribute original perspectives and solutions, and practise at a high international level.
• Develop concepts and solutions through design-related investigation, ideation, collabaration, and projects.
• Understand the unique history of design, its societal role, and its cultural and technological foundations.
• Master design methods, tools, and forms of expression, using them in targeted, professional, and experimental ways.
• Have knowledge and experience in research and development work.
• Communicate values and concepts, facilitate dialogue, and support interdisciplinary processes.
• Reflect on their own work, challenge existing frameworks, and expand their understanding.
• Take responsibility for their professional development and apply their knowledge in new fields.
• Consider ethical implications in design practice.
• Demonstrate strong collaboration skills and adaptability in different professional roles.
• Graduates develop a people-centred and empathetic approach, working with a wide range of users, stakeholders, and systems. AHO’s unique Systems Oriented Design courses provide methodologies for addressing complex societal, industrial, and cultural challenges.

Designers from AHO are expected to take responsibility for the impact of their work, considering users, technology, ecology, and long-term sustainability in their projects.
 

How will you learn?

AHO is internationally respected and a preferred partner among the world’s leading universities. The design programme fosters a designerly attitude of ‘Shaping Futures’ in creative, valuable, and responsible ways, educating leading practitioners of the discipline.

AHO aims to be at the forefront of the design field, achieving this through a close link between research and education, as well as close collaboration with both the private and public sectors. Throughout their studies, students have the opportunity to collaborate with industry partners and engage in the school’s research activities.

As a result, students who complete this programme are well-equipped for a successful professional career in design.

Admission

The language of instruction is English.

Read more about the admission requirements here (aho.no).