AAS College Thessaloniki
School of Art & Design
COURSES | MASTER
MA User Experience & Service Design
Imagine a world where every interaction with a digital product or service is seamless, intuitive, and delightful. The MDes User Experience and Service Design course is your gateway to mastering the art of creating exceptional user experiences across various digital platforms and services.
On the course you will dive deep into understanding user behaviour, designing content that captivates, and crafting services that exceed expectations. Through a blend of theory and hands-on practice, you will learn to use design thinking as a powerful tool to solve complex problems.
From wireframing to prototyping, you will have the opportunity to both develop and hone your skills in translating ideas into tangible solutions. In addition, you will explore the intricate relationship between technology and psychology, ensuring that every touchpoint resonates with users on a deep level.
What sets our program apart is its focus on real-world applications. Collaborating with industry partners, you can tackle authentic challenges, gaining invaluable experience that transcends the classroom.
The course is run by seasoned professionals and supported by industry professionals who are ready to guide you towards becoming visionaries in user-centric design and research.
By the end of this journey, you will emerge not just as a designer or researcher, but as a strategic thinker who can shape the future of digital experiences and services. Join us at Ulster University and embark on a transformative adventure where creativity meets functionality, and where your passion for design and research finds its true purpose.
Through ongoing development during the course, students are able to identify themselves with a variety of outcomes:
Become a Designer – Thrive as part of in-house or agency teams or as a self-employed creative.
Pursue Design Research – Join in-house or agency teams, or lead academic research as a PhD student.
Emerge as a Designer Leader – Propel your career towards business leadership or strategic thinking in the creative industries.
The MDes in User Experience and Service Design equips graduates with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in these roles. The program emphasises practical learning, collaboration with industry partners, and a research-focused approach that prepares students for the dynamic design and research field. Graduates benefit from cutting-edge thinking, practice-led learning, and exposure to diverse perspectives that enhance their employability in high-demand areas of design and research.
Duration:
13 months
Educational form:
Taught
Education Variants:
Fulltime
Language:
English
October’s 2025 Intake:
Induction Start Date:
29th September 2025
Class Start Date:
6th October 2025
British Degree:
Master of Arts
STUDENT WORK
COURSE (MA Design User Experience ) STRUCTURE
Core modules:
Semester 1
Semester 2
Semester 3
Semester 1
Exploration and Enquiry (40 credits)
This module provides students with the necessary critical, practical and intellectual frameworks to initiate, evaluate, negotiate and develop a sustainable creative practice within their respective field. The module combines presentations from professionals and researchers that provide a forum for peer discussion and debate.
It focuses on the development of self-directed practice-led research and the establishment of a sustainable creative and critical engagement. Advanced digital and analogue skills, technologies and processes will be introduced. Students will audit their own skills and their project needs and resource implications. The module offers students the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge and to consider initiating interdisciplinary or strategic partnerships.
Design Thinking (20 credits)
This module enables students to develop an understanding of the user needs and challenging the existing through independent, innovative and disruptive thinking. Students will observe and develop empathy with the target user. This module will enable students in the process of questioning: questioning the problem, questioning the assumptions, and questioning the implications, allowing deeper investigation and critical evaluation of knowledge and understanding of the wider theoretical development of design as a discipline.
Semester 2
Specialist Skills Development (40 credits)
This module expands students’ knowledge of user experience, design thinking, and service design, providing creative direction and support for their emerging practice. It covers topics such as narrative construction, emerging digital themes, globalisation, localisation, and aesthetics.
With a focus on theory and practical applications, students develop strategies and research methods for problem-solving, opportunity identification, innovation framing, prototyping, and testing. The module includes a concentrated period of practical research and peer critique, challenging students to explore contemporary issues and design solutions for social impact. It also prepares students to produce a practice-led and critically sound project proposal that generates the foundation for their Master’s Projects.
Design Futures (20 credits)
This module aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of design in the 21st century. From artificial intelligence and machine learning to sustainability concerns, designers face numerous and complex challenges. Through lectures, workshops, and practical projects, students will learn about the latest developments in AI and other emerging technologies and how to apply them in the context of UX and service design. The module will also explore the ethical and social implications of these technologies, encouraging students to think critically about the role of design in shaping our future. By combining cutting-edge technology with a deep understanding of social and ethical implications, students will be equipped to create sustainable, ethical, and socially responsible products and services that make a positive impact on the world.
Semester 3
Masters Project (60 credits)
This module provides a period of sustained self-motivated and practice-led creative engagement. It brings to a resolution a body of work relevant to the area of focus for the student’s Masters programme, whether interaction design, service design, or design thinking. The module realises key skills and knowledge concerning the management, documentation, evaluation and dissemination of the creative and practice-led research process in relation to these domains. Finally, it also facilitates a sustained independent period of enquiry within a clearly determined creative body of practice, underpinned by exploration of a range of critical and contextual frameworks evidence in a final, Masters report.
ASSESSMENT
Assessment is 100% coursework and you will be continually assessed throughout the course.
The course is continually assessed through module requirements, allowing students to achieve target awards. Pass mark for the programme and modules is 50%.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
Graduates have an increasingly wide array of career options available, including User Experience Designer, User Experience Researcher, User Experience Design Researcher, Service Designer, Design Researcher, Digital Product Designer, Interaction Designer, and Strategic Designer.
In addition to working for design consultancies, graduates can find themselves working in a wide range of sectors including, financial technology, cybersecurity, healthcare, and public and private services.
Our course includes industry collaborations allowing regular access to local and international practitioners and design leaders.
HOW TO APPLY
You should apply direct to the AAS College. We accept applications throughout the year, but advise you to apply early. We would like to receive application forms before 30th of June.
All candidates are required to submit the following documents:
1. A Fully Completed Application
AAS Application Form completed
A scanned copy of your passport
2. Diploma of previous education
University Degree (Bachelor’s or/and MA) from a recognised University and the relevant transcripts translated in English.
3. English language certificate
Certified Photocopy of English Language qualification(s).
Undergraduate applicants must have a fluent command of the English language which can be proven via the following examinations:
IELTS: 6,0 or other equivalent qualifications.
Candidates who have not acquired an English language qualification at the time of the submission of their application form are required to submit it at least one month before the commencement of the course.
4. Portfolio
You can send us approximately 20 examples of your work with a short written commentary. Most of this work
can be in the form of photographs in a PDF file. You could send us a link or the URL of your website as well.
Submit your documents at the College’s website at:
https://aas.gr/aas-college-apply-now/
Our response: A member of our staff will contact you in 48 hours.
AAS offer to you
Deciding to start study is an exciting time but the process to actually get there can seem daunting. That’s where we can help. Here’s what you need to be finding out about now. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sending you lots of important information, so if any of your contact details change, we need to know as soon as possible. Please let us know if you change your:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Passport number
At AAS we pride ourselves on the tailored support we offer to all our students and we want your application and enrolment to go as smoothly as possible. If you have any problems at all, we are here to help.
You will receive:
an unconditional offer: An Admission Letter by college’s Admissions Office,
or a conditional offer: that means that before the commencing of your course you have to submit some documents,
or a rejection letter: that means that you don’t cover the requirements of the interested course.
Visa Process
The following documents to be submitted by all non-EU students to the Greek Embassy or Consulate Office closer to you:
- Application form for a visa for a long stay in Greece, fully filled in and signed by the applicant
- One recent passport-size photograph in colour
- Passport that should be of a validity exceeding by three months the ending date of the visa length, include at least two blank pages and have been issued within the previous ten years
- Police Clearance Certificate (Criminal record)
- Medical Certificate
- Travel insurance
- Admission letter by AAS
- A confirmation document by AAS that you are a college’s student
- Document by the Ministry of Education that the AAS College holds a valid license and is registered in the relevant records
- English language Certificate
- Proof of sufficient funds to cover living expenses and AAS tuition fees in Greece
- Visa fee
You should also have in mind the following:
- Original documents and passports submitted must be accompanied along with a copy.
- All documents submitted must be in English or Greek
- You may be asked for additional documents and will be called to a personal interview at the Embassy or Consulate Office (the requirements of Greek Embassies or Consulate Offices aren’t the same from country to country)
- The visa fee is not refunded if the visa is refused