Experience Design (XD)
The Experience Design (XD) department houses a highly interdisciplinary faculty focusing on research and teaching in Experience Design (XD) and Public Relations (PR). Our XD faculty and students' research focuses on virtual reality, haptic and tactile interfaces, conversational user interfaces, customer experience, and educational user interfaces using artificial intelligence. The research programs in PR focus on the media's presentation of racialized and gendered stereotypes and on crisis management and corporate social advocacy.
Undergraduate majors in Experience Design and Public Relations teach students how to manage real-world situations and create human-centered solutions using innovative, research-based methods from design innovation and strategic communication fields.
The graduate Master’s in Human Factors in Information Design (MSHFID) is a 10-course UX program emphasizing a solid behavioral foundation and focusing on qualitative and quantitative user research methods, usability testing, and product design, interfaces and services. The hybrid program is regularly highly ranked and available on the main campus outside of Boston and also in San Francisco.
The Executive PhD in Experience Design is a flexible three-year program that prepares students for leadership roles in design and research. Students will benefit from our state-of-the-art User Experience Center, the Haptics Lab and the Augmented Reality Lab.
Degree Programs
Ziat advances tactile technologies
“I believe in the power of technology to help us create a better world,” says associate professor Mounia Ziat, an internationally recognized scientist, scholar and innovator in the field of haptic technology, or human-computer interaction mediated through touch. Such sentiment is evident in her current research projects, which are funded by U.S. government and National Science Foundation grants and explore the complex relationship sensory perception and cognition.
Social media empowers Black users, says Stamps
While assistant professor David Stamps acknowledges social media’s potentially harmful effects, he also believes that digital platforms have the capacity to educate, inspire and empower — particularly for Black users. In research published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, he explains how social media “has allowed Black individuals to share their grievances, celebrate their successes, call attention to injustice and build awareness around cultural issues.”
Gribbons honored for Lifetime Teaching Excellence
For nearly four decades, professor Bill Gribbons — recipient of Bentley’s 2022 Adamian Award for Lifetime Teaching Excellence — has enriched the lives of countless undergraduate and graduate students through “his capacity to ignite passion and invite discovery in the classroom,” says one Bentley alumna. “An elite scholar, a respected educator and a beloved mentor, he has shaped the careers and brightened the futures of all who were fortunate to learn from him,” she says.
Courses
Contact
Roland Hübscher
Associate Professor and Department Chair
Morison 288
781.891.2932
rhubscher@bentley.edu