2^nd year Bachelor

Like any other area of design, hypermedia design requires a thorough knowledge of the medium that is targeted in the design process. The chosen medium poses constraints and requirements on the graphical aspects of design and has consequences for the production process. Students will learn to know the production process of a website and get acquainted with the technologies and the implications for the graphical design of a website.

Designing a website involves a thorough study of both the technical requirements and the artistic expectations of the target audience. The creative process that leads to a successful site is challenging and complex, but can be consciously driven in a structured manner. Students will be exposed to a structure approach to creative web design and will practise in assignments.

At the end of the course, students:

• have knowledge about the various aspects of web-based communication;
• have knowledge about the various technologies currently in use in web-development;
• have knowledge of and experience with the creative process of designing a website for a specific purpose and target audience;
• have hands-on experience with the development of a website that has both graphical and technical quality, is technically consistent, and meets the requirements of user-friendliness and maintainability;
• have hands-on experience with developing dynamic aspects of websites, through the usage of various techniques, including Flash and scripting technologies.

This discipline involves expanding the students’ graphical design qualities, targeting the web as the communication medium. The main issue being studied is the relationship between graphical design aspects and technical aspects of websites.

The discipline consists of three components:

1. A theoretical component offering a general overview of web-based technologies, their potential and limitations;
2. A practical component focused on the development of information-based websites, using the standardised techniques of HTML and CSS;
3. A practical component focused on the development of dynamic aspects of websites, using standardised scripting techniques as well as non-standardised techniques such as Flash.

3^rd year Bachelor

The objective of this projects is to gain experience with a realistic and complete design cycle in a collaboration context. Building on the knowledge and skills from the first two years of the Interactive Media Design course, students will now practice their skills in a project of their choice that mimics a real-world situation. This allows students on the one hand to deepen and confirm their designer's capabilities, specialising in the area of their preference, while on the other hand it requires students to become aware and take into account all the constraints and other aspects of a commercial design project. It involves situating their design activities in a larger context, relating it to competing designs and the client's intent. It also involves developing the commercial qualities of their design and communicating these with the client.

A secondary objective is to develop students' design collaboration competences.

While this project advances through the creative design cycle that students already have experienced in previous disciplines, this project particularly involves an integral approach to design in which the communication with the client is a key aspect. This allows the student to learn to target the client's needs while at the same time ensuring and defending a high standard of design quality. This is achieved by following a strong methodical approach to design development, from analysis of the context to conceptualisation of the design objective.

Students work together in design teams, learning to play different roles in the creative process as well as different roles in the collaboration process, experiencing the various social and organisational aspects of collaboration.

1^st year Master

This is a studio class in which students are guided through a number of assignments that involve the design of various kinds of interfaces and elements of human-computer interaction. The objective is to teach the fundamentals of interaction design, as well as to let students gain experience with the process of design. Students will learn to appreciate the importance, difficulty, and complexity of UI design. On completion of this course, students will have gained the following competences:

• Understanding of and practical experience with the fundamental concepts, methods, and practices of interaction design.
• Ability to explore the ideas of “form follows interaction” and “be the user”.
• Ability to explore how users develop attachment with products through identification.
• Understanding of the role that interaction with products plays in mediating relationships between people and people, people and places, and people and products.
• Ability to present design ideas.

This course involves the students in analytical design research tasks, focused on specific design problems. Students will first identify issues to be resolved and the opportunities for improvement and innovation, leading to the design of high-quality software interfaces

1^st year Bachelor

This discipline offers a theoretical introduction as well as hands-on experience with Computer Aided Design software, for usage in areas of Architectural and Civil Design.

At the end of this discipline, the student will have acquired the competences to be able to or have knowledge of:

1. Technical 2D sketching:
   1. Taking the measures of an existing building;
   2. Making 2D sketches of a building in plan, elevation, and section;
   3. Making 2D sketches of a building in isometric and perspective view;
   4. Adding dimensions and annotations to 2D sketches.
2. Theory of Building Information Modelling (BIM):
   1. The objectives, history, and characteristics of BIM;
   2. The various kinds of geometric modelling approaches and their uses;
   3. The various kinds of semantic modelling approaches and abstraction mechanisms;
   4. The complexity of BIM and its application in practice.
3. Technical 3D modelling:
   1. Making a conceptual design model with Revit;
   2. Converting 2D sketches manually into a 3D model;
   3. Working with the component model in Revit;
   4. Working with the constraint system in Revit;
   5. Creating technical drawings from the 3D model;
   6. Creating other construction documents from the 3D model.

The discipline is split up into two sections:

Section 1: Technical 2D sketching

Section 2: Technical 3D modelling

In Section 1, the student will create a number of technical sketches of a building that are then taken as the point of departure for Section 2, where the student will create a 3D building information model of the same building.

3^rd year Bachelor

The objective of these projects is to gain experience with a realistic and complete design cycle in a collaboration context. Building on the knowledge and skills from the first two years of the design course, students will now practice their skills in a project of their choice that mimics a real-world situation. This allows students on the one hand to deepen and confirm their designer's capabilities, specialising in the area of their preference, while on the other hand it requires students to become aware and take into account all the constraints and other aspects of a commercial design project. It involves situating their design activities in a larger context, relating it to competing designs and the client's intent. It also involves developing the commercial qualities of their design and communicating these with the client.

A secondary objective is to develop students' design collaboration competences.

While this project advances through the creative design cycle that students already have experienced in previous disciplines, this project particularly involves an integral approach to design in which the communication with the client is a key aspect. This allows the student to learn to target the client's needs while at the same time ensuring and defending a high standard of design quality. This is achieved by following a strong methodical approach to design development, from analysis of the context to conceptualisation of the design objective.

Students work together in design teams, learning to play different roles in the creative process as well as different roles in the collaboration process, experiencing the various social and organisational aspects of collaboration.

Last year's students' work was exhibited in 'Madeira Shopping', the local main shopping centre, during 4 weeks.

3^rd year Bachelor

The objective of this discipline is to bring the graphic design capabilities that students have acquired in the previous design disciplines to the area of the world-wide-web. The web poses not only particular constraints and requirements on the graphical aspects of design, it also involves a completely different production process. Students will learn to know the production process of a website, get acquainted with the technologies and the implications for the graphical design of a website.

This discipline only partly involves expanding the students graphical design qualities. The main issue being studied is the relationship between graphical design aspects and technical aspects of websites.

The discipline consists of three components:

1. A theoretical component offering a general overview of web-based technologies, their potential and limitations;
2. A practical component focused on the development of information-based websites, using the standardised techniques of HTML and CSS;
3. A practical component focused on the development of dynamic aspects of websites, using standardised scripting techniques as well as non-standardised techniques such as Flash.