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The Interaction Design Bachelor of Science degree at Santa Monica College focuses on preparing students for careers as User Experience (UX) and Interaction Designers (IxD). Our program consists of methodologies, best practices, project-based processes and "making" for Interaction Design.
The Interaction Design degree is made up of 2 years of upper-division IxD classes. The upper division curriculum requires a full-time commitment (12 or more units per semester), and must be taken in sequence.
Meet the minimum requirements
Start online application
Respond to essay questions
Attach portfolio work samples
Submit your application!
Complete 60 semester units of California State University or CSU transferable courses.
Complete two college English classes - English 1 and English 2 in the CSU pattern or their equivalents. In addition, you’ll need one math class from a CSU general education pattern.
You should have a minimum overall GPA of 2.0 or higher at the time of application.
To be eligible for admission, students must meet these requirements by the end of Spring 2025.
Speak with an SMC IxD Counselor to establish your IxD Major Preparation plan. If you have taken classes outside of SMC and unsure if you've met the admission requirements, it is a good idea to meet with an academic counselor to confirm eligibility.
We recommend that you start working on preparing your portfolio as early as possible. The portfolio will likely take the largest portion of the time spent on the application. If you feel like you need some help with your portfolio you can enroll in the SMC Graphic Design Portfolio class.
Start by creating an account by going to https://smcixd.slideroom.com and clicking “sign up”.
To apply to SMC IxD you need to submit a package of supplemental materials through the SlideRoom web portal. You will also use SlideRoom to submit your responses to essay questions and your portfolio.
Quick tip: you will be able to save your application progress to complete at a later date. But keep this in mind: once you submit your application you cannot go back and edit materials again - so make sure you're ready before hitting that “Submit” button.
You will need to obtain unofficial transcripts from the colleges and universities you have attended before and upload them as a part of your application in the SlideRoom web portal.
If your application is accepted into the program we will ask you to arrange for the official transcripts to be sent by July 15 of the year when you start your first semester at the IxD program.
If you only attended Santa Monica College you may skip this step.
These questions will give you an opportunity to share your perspective on design, your passions and interests, and your career aspirations. There are no wrong answers! We are looking for authenticity and sincerity.
Choose an example of a project or product of interaction design by an established designer or studio that has impacted or inspired your work as a designer.
What are the specific design decisions in that project or product that you feel have contributed to it being a success? Give specific and detailed examples.
Next, share what you feel doesn’t work well or could be done differently in that same project or product. Please share specific ideas you would propose to improve the design.
(200 Words Minimum, 500 Words Maximum)
Share how you hope to use your degree in Interaction Design.
What tools, innovations and technologies are you passionate about participating in?
What are the challenge(s) that you would bring your design skills to? How would you contribute to improvements in those area(s)?
(200 Words Minimum, 500 Words Maximum)
Can I use AI?
We appreciate and embrace new technology! If you used an AI tool to help write your responses to the design essay questions, we ask that you let us know which one, and how you used it, otherwise it might negatively impact your application. This allows us to better understand the ways students leverage this technology as we look to integrate AI into the curriculum.
3 to 5 projects reflecting your design work, edited to highlight your best and most relevant design work.
You can choose to include professional work, class assignments, or passion projects. There's a wide range of projects that can be included in your portfolio.
There's a wide range of projects that can be included in your portfolio. For example…
Websites
Mobile Apps
Architecture
Print Design
Products (physical/digital)
Interaction Design
User Experience Design (UX)
Motion Graphics
Game Design
Coding and Engineering
Passion Projects
Submit each project as a PDF file at a maximum size of 10 megabytes per file. You may need to flatten and compress your files to meet the size requirements.
Remember you can't go back and edit your materials once you submit so make sure you're fully ready to take this step. Submit your best work we're here to help and we're looking forward to reviewing your application!
We will not accept URLs or other Web-based resources in your submission for the reasons of fairness, - because it is possible to change the content at those URLs even after the submission deadline.
Take a look at some example work to see how you might approach this for your own projects. These should not be copied but used only as inspiration.
