The question to ask is not “What do you want to be?” but rather “What do you want to do?”
– Reflection made by Barbara Morgan, NASA school-teacher astronaut
The Master of Science in Design (MSD) is underpinned by one fundamental principle: what do you want to do? This makes the MSD significantly different from many other graduate degrees in design, which often focus on what you want to be.
The MSD achieves its mission in two significant ways. First, it is a research degree and not a practice degree. Like most research degrees, it is centered on the systematic and methodological investigation of issues important to design.
Second, the MSD is interdisciplinary. It provides an educational environment that works across the many disciplines that exist in a setting such as the College of Design and Arizona State University.
Investigation has always been part of a designer’s toolbox, but has occurred most often as an unstructured part of the normal designing process. Design research is relatively new to the practice of design and is the evolution of the investigative part of the designing process. It is undertaken with a more methodological and systematic approach. Design research is not formulaic and does not pretend to provide design solutions. What it does provide is a greater understanding of the design situation at hand in order to arrive at a more effective design solution. Today, more and more design challenges are requiring more extensive research before and the MSD equips you with the skills to undertake design research.
For Prospective Students
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