University of Minnesota launches the states first bachelors degree in UX Design
The College of Design at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is debuting this semester the first Bachelor of Science in User Experience (UX) Design in the entire state of Minnesota. The initiative comes at a time when demand for qualified professionals in this field is growing rapidly, positioning the university as a leader in academic training focused on creating human-centered digital experiences.
McLean Donnelly, a UX Design professor and program coordinator, believes this is only the second program of its kind among the 18 universities in the Big Ten conference. And what makes the initiative even more unique is the institutions strategic location.
According to Donnelly, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities sits in a state with an extremely vibrant design ecosystem and the highest number of Fortune 500 companies per capita in the United States. For him, this gives students unmatched opportunities to tackle real-world challenges and connect with industry leaders.
User Experience Design focuses on how people interact with digital products — websites, apps, smart technologies — combining psychology, research, technology, and design to create human-centered, intuitive, and accessible experiences. It is a discipline that goes far beyond the visual appearance of a screen, diving deep into human behavior and the real needs of anyone using any kind of digital interface.
What the new UX Design bachelors degree offers
The program created by the College of Design at the University of Minnesota is not just another course packed with generic theory about interfaces. The curriculum was designed to cover a broad spectrum of skills ranging from research with real users to advanced prototyping, including information architecture, interaction design, and content strategy. The core goal is to prepare students to think systemically about how people relate to digital products, services, and systems, taking into account cultural context, accessibility, and emotional needs.
One of the most interesting differentiators of this degree is the direct integration with real-world projects starting from the very first semesters. Students dont wait until the end of their program to get hands-on experience. The program includes partnerships with companies in the region, supervised internships, and interaction labs where students can test prototypes with real users and collect both qualitative and quantitative behavioral data. This bridge between the classroom and the job market is something many design programs still struggle to offer consistently, and the university is going all-in on this model.
Another point worth highlighting is the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum. The degree combines courses from areas like cognitive psychology, computer science, visual communication, and anthropology. This blend reflects a clear trend in the tech market, where the most valued professionals are those who can move between different fields of knowledge to solve complex problems. Instead of producing specialists isolated in a single tool or methodology, the University of Minnesota is developing professionals who understand the full picture of how humans and technology interact.
Donnelly sums up the programs philosophy pretty directly: the program teaches students to look at problems, find solutions, validate hypotheses, prototype, present work professionally, and receive feedback. According to him, the program teaches you how to think. And even as technology changes over the years, that foundation will remain relevant and allow students to grow along with it. In the coordinators words, it is a degree for life.
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Why the industry is calling for this kind of training
Donnelly points out that companies in the tech, healthcare, retail, and finance sectors are investing heavily in qualified designers to improve digital interactions. UX roles are among the fastest-growing and highest-paying positions in the design and tech fields.
The explanation is simple and pragmatic. As Donnelly himself puts it, behind every website, every app, everything you use, there is someone designing it. And more and more companies are investing in this area because the impact goes straight to the bottom line. If you pull up a website on your phone and it doesnt work well or look good, how long are you going to stick around? That translates to real money.
Part of the motivation for creating the program came from the success the College of Design already had with its UX minor. Students who completed the minor are already working full-time at U.S. Bank, Best Buy, Target, and Medtronic — all major companies headquartered in Minnesota.
The fact that Minnesota has the highest number of Fortune 500 companies per capita in the United States creates an extremely favorable ecosystem for graduates in this field. The employers are literally in the universitys backyard. This geographic proximity makes internships, mentorships, collaborative projects, and direct post-graduation hiring much easier. For students, the transition from academic life to the job market happens in a much more organic and natural way.
There is also a matter of market maturity that makes this timing especially relevant. For a long time, UX was seen as a secondary function within software development teams. Designers were brought in at the end of the process to put a visual polish on something that was already practically finished. Today, the most successful organizations include user experience professionals from the product conception phase, participating in strategic decisions and directly influencing the direction of the business. This maturation of the UX role within companies is exactly what justifies the existence of a robust, dedicated academic program.
Formalizing a high-demand career path
Donnelly explains that before the launch of the bachelors degree, students had been piecing together their UX skills in a fragmented way, combining the minor with independent studies and standalone courses. Now, with Minnesotas first Bachelor of Science in UX Design, students have a full four years to learn this discipline in depth. That represents a real advantage on any job candidates resume.
Interest has already been quite strong: around 50 students enrolled in the program before classes even officially began.
Alumna Eliana Smelansky, who graduated in 2022, is a concrete example of how this kind of training can transform a career path. Smelansky earned her degree in marketing from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, with a minor in interdisciplinary design. After an internship that turned into a full-time merchandising role at Target, she realized she wanted something more creative. The solution was a six-month UX/UI bootcamp at the University of Minnesota itself.
Today, Smelansky works as an Experience Designer at Best Buy. When she saw the launch of the new UX bachelors degree, she shared the news on social media with enthusiasm, saying that if this program had existed when she was in college, it would have been her choice without a second thought.
About her day-to-day work, Smelansky says a big part of the job involves collaboration, brainstorming concepts, and presenting to stakeholders and leadership. For her, having an undergraduate program where students learn all of this in one integrated package — how to work with stakeholders, collaborate on problem-solving, and create visually compelling solutions — is extremely attractive.
Landing the dream job
Another story that illustrates the potential of this kind of training is Nick Horsts. A 2025 graduate of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, Horst earned his degree in computer science but added the UX minor to his resume — and those skills were the deciding factor in landing his dream job.
According to Horst, it was a class with McLean Donnelly that opened his eyes to the intersection of technology and design, exactly the space where he now works professionally. After graduating this spring, Horst moved to Los Angeles to work at Respawn Entertainment, a company owned by Electronic Arts, one of the largest gaming companies in the world.
Horst always knew he wanted to work in video games. For him, if you are building games, apps, or any software that requires a user interface, UX is an incredibly valuable skill.
Currently, his team works on Apex Legends, a title with global reach. For Horst, the situation holds special meaning — he started playing the game back in high school, so working on it now is a true full-circle moment in his life.
As a technical experience designer at Respawn, Horst explains that every time a new feature or functionality is being developed, essentially anything that shows up on the players screen goes through his teams programming within the game.
When it comes to the new UX bachelors degree, Horst is emphatic: if he were a freshman today, he would definitely have chosen UX Design as his sole major or, at the very least, would have seriously considered it as part of a double major.
Alumni already validating the path with impressive careers
Even before the official launch of this bachelors degree, the College of Design at the University of Minnesota already had a solid reputation for training creative professionals. Now, with a dedicated program in User Experience Design, that tradition gains an even more focused structure. Stories like Smelanskys and Horsts serve as practical validation of the kind of education the institution offers — and they are not isolated cases.
What makes these examples even more relevant is the diversity of sectors where these professionals are working. This is not just about software companies or startups. We are talking about professionals applying human-centered design principles in areas like healthcare, finance, retail, digital entertainment, and consumer technology. This demonstrates that User Experience Design is a cross-cutting competency, applicable in virtually any context where there is an interface between people and systems. For anyone considering this field of study, that is an important data point — the versatility of the field ensures that opportunities are not limited to a single niche.
The launch of this program also sends an important signal to other universities and the higher education market as a whole. When an institution of the University of Minnesotas caliber, part of one of the most respected academic conferences in the United States, decides to create a dedicated bachelors degree in UX, it legitimizes the field in a way that standalone courses and bootcamps cannot do on their own. Not that those alternatives lack value — they certainly have it — but a full undergraduate program offers theoretical depth, methodological rigor, and an academic network that complements hands-on training in a meaningful way.
Developing well-rounded students for an evolving market
Donnelly highlights that the UX bachelors degree is a great fit for anyone with a bit of creativity and visual sensibility, along with an interest in computer science. The program opens the door to a wide range of career possibilities, precisely because it combines technical skills with strategic thinking and empathy for the user.
The program coordinator is particularly optimistic about the longevity of this degree. According to him, the program teaches students to analyze problems, find solutions, validate ideas, create prototypes, present work professionally, and incorporate feedback constructively. At its core, it is about teaching people how to think. And even as tools and technologies change over time — as they inevitably will — that foundation of critical, human-centered thinking will keep scaling and allow graduates to grow alongside market transformations.
The impact on the future of UX Design
This move by the University of Minnesota represents something bigger than just the creation of a new program. It reflects a paradigm shift in how the market and academia view User Experience Design. For a long time, UX professionals were self-taught or came from adjacent fields like graphic design, psychology, or computer science. There was no clear, dedicated academic pathway for anyone who wanted to specialize in creating human-centered digital experiences. With the formalization of a bachelors degree at a major university, the profession gains more defined contours and recognition that helps with both salary growth and the perception of strategic relevance within organizations.
The expectation is that other universities will follow the same path in the coming years, especially those located in regions with strong innovation ecosystems. The logic is straightforward — where there is demand for well-designed digital experiences, there is a need for well-trained professionals to meet that demand. And as technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and voice interfaces become more present in everyday life, the role of the experience designer becomes even more critical. Someone needs to make sure these technologies are accessible, understandable, and genuinely useful for people.
For anyone following the tech market and keeping an eye on professional development trends, this is a move worth watching closely. The fact that industry demands are directly shaping university curricula shows that the gap between what you learn in school and what the market expects is shrinking. And when that connection happens in an ecosystem as rich as Minnesotas, with access to major corporations, research labs, and an already established design community, the results tend to be very positive for both the students and the companies that will absorb these talents in the years ahead 🚀
