Master of Design is a two-year programme for students with an undergraduate degree in design. Students can choose between specialisation in service design, interaction design or industrial design, and develop their own unique identities as designers. |
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The design programme educates leading practitioners of the discipline. AHO is internationally respected and a preferred partner among the world’s leading universities.
Master of Design has a broad approach to design that emphasises the relevance and importance of design within contemporary society. It promotes design that actively shapes industry, organisations and daily life. The programme is founded on an Industrial Design tradition, but today equally includes Interaction Design, Service Design and Systems Oriented Design. Within this two-year Master, students can either specialise within these directions, or chose a hybrid route. During the studies, students collaborates with industry partners and take part in the school’s research activities.
This programme reflects the emerging fields of design that respond to societal challenges, new technologies and increased complexity by creating services, products and interactions that delight, improve and challenge.
The design programme nurtures a designerly attitude of ‘Shaping Futures’ in creative, valuable and responsible ways. Master of Design has a broad, holistic approach to design that goes beyond its traditional role, emphasising its relevance and importance within contemporary society. Students who complete this programme are well equipped for a professional career in design.
Our programme philosophy focuses on methods and processes, aesthetics and communication. Furthermore, AHO emphasises the importance of placing our practice within an ethical, sustainable and critical socio-cultural framework. AHO aims to be at the forefront of the design field and achieves this through a close link between research and education, as well as close collaboration with the industry, private and public sector.
Designers educated at AHO:
- are capable of establishing an independent professional area of work, contribute with original angles of perception and solutions, and practise the discipline at a high international level;
- can develop concepts and solutions through design-related investigation, ideation, collaboration and projects;
- know the unique history of the subject, its position in society and are able to reflect on the subject’s cultural and technological preconditions today and looking forward;
- master the subject’s methods, tools and forms of expression and are able to use these in a targeted, professional and experimental way in creative processes;
- have knowledge and experience of research and development work;
- can communicate values and concepts, facilitate dialogue and interdisciplinary processes by applying a broad spectrum of design methods and tools;
- have the ability to reflect on their own work and transgress their framework of understanding;
- take responsibility for their own professional development and can use their knowledge and skills in new fields;
- can reflect on and position their own professional contribution in relation to ethical issues that arise when practising design;
- are able to take on different professional roles in a reflected manner and demonstrate good cooperation skills when working with other professional groups.
Graduates adopt a holistic approach to both problem solving and identifying new windows of opportunity. With people in focus and an empathic approach, you work with a wide range of different users, stakeholders and systems. AHO’s unique courses in systems oriented design familiarise students with methodology and approaches used to meet the complexity and systematic challenges in society, industry and culture.
Designers from AHO should be able to take responsibility for the consequences of their practical training and projects, and take different users and technologies, ecology, nature and long-term sustainability into consideration in their work.
Teaching language
This programme is the 4th and 5th year of AHO's five-year integrated master’s degree in design and is taught in English. The foundation level is taught in Norwegian and covers the first three years. For more information, please see our Norwegian pages
The Institute of Design is responsible for the programme