Businesses, organisations and government agencies are facing ever more complex challenges that require innovative approaches. Increasingly, the field of design is expected to come up with answers and help achieve progress. The purpose of this programme is to train qualified and confident designers who can enter these complex contexts, take on a leading role and co-create solid, sustainable solutions.
We are reaching out to students with different backgrounds, not necessarily with previous academic design qualifications, but with excellent design abilities and a desire to develop design beyond specific materials and disciplines.
Please be advised that this programme has a multi-campus setup, with courses offered in Linköping and Norrköping, as well as through blended learning.
Theoretical courses and studio work
This programme incorporates established and innovative design concepts in a unique interdisciplinary setup. Studio courses form the backbone of the programme, providing the fundamentals of working with societal challenges. The challenges are defined on a yearly basis, ranging from Food Waste and Civility to Nomadic Welfare.
Theoretical courses and design projects run alongside studio work. You develop generic design skills and knowledge of design facilitation, co-design and creative practices and design history. You learn about designing and change, and how to make design a strategic practice that is embedded in organisations. Projects are carried out in mixed-competence groups, sometimes with students from other programmes, across campuses with blended learning, using physical and digital resources. You will work and interact with companies, organisations and entrepreneurs.
Sustainability, service and visuality
Elective courses are structured into tracks allowing you to develop skills and knowledge within an area of speciality.
The current tracks offered are:
- Sustainable Design
Design of sustainable systems, with accompanying business models, products and services. Project-based exploration of future solutions that may promote a transition to a sustainable society and empower people interacting with those systems.
- Service Design
Design and innovation for the service sector, including welfare and industrial service. Engaging humans at the centre of design projects and developing service concepts and social innovations to facilitate transformation of practices and co-creation of value.
- Visual Media Design
Design of interactive visual environments, going beyond screens and handheld units towards augmented and immersive approaches. Studio-based exploration of advanced concepts at the intersection of graphic design, interaction design and information visualisation.
A leading design research university
Linköping University is one of Sweden’s leading design research universities, with world-class research into design for services, a state-of-the-art facility for visual media research, and a strong team devoted to design and sustainability.
Studio courses are supported by a set of core courses, currently covering knowledge areas of Co-design, Design Research Methodologies, and Norm-Creativity. Track courses allow you to engage with a specific knowledge area. We currently offer the following knowledge areas:
