Design Education is entering a new phase in the United States, and this time the spotlight falls on an institution with a long-standing academic tradition.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities, through its College of Design, announced the creation of the first UX Design bachelor’s degree in the entire state of Minnesota, with the inaugural class set to begin in the fall 2025 semester. The program arrives at a time when demand for professionals specializing in User Experience continues to rise steadily across the global job market — and in a state that already stands out as one of the most relevant design and business ecosystems in the United States.
McLean Donnelly, a UX Design professor and the program coordinator, believes this is only the second undergraduate degree of its kind among the 18 institutions in the Big Ten conference. And what makes the program even more special, according to him, is its prime location.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is located in a state with a vibrant design ecosystem and the highest number of Fortune 500 companies per capita in the United States, Donnelly points out. For him, this means students will have unparalleled opportunities to tackle real-world challenges and connect with industry leaders.
The degree is designed to train professionals who are ready to create digital products that genuinely make sense for the people who will use them every day. We are talking about websites, apps, intelligent systems, and any interface that connects technology and human beings. To achieve that, the curriculum blends psychology, user research, information technology, and design fundamentals into a robust four-year program. One detail that really stands out is that roughly 50 students have already secured a spot in the first cohort, signaling that there is real demand for this kind of qualification 👀
What makes this degree different
Short courses, bootcamps, and certifications in UX Design have been around for a while now and have become a popular entry point for anyone looking to switch careers or break into the field. However, establishing a full bachelor’s degree at a heavyweight university like the University of Minnesota represents a step beyond. The main difference lies in the depth of the education. While shorter programs tend to focus on tools and quick deliverables, a four-year degree allows students to develop critical thinking, research skills, and a broader understanding of human behavior, accessibility, and ethics in design. That completely changes the profile of the professional who comes out on the other side.
The program was built to integrate theory and practice from day one. Students will work on real projects, collaborate across disciplines, and learn to make design decisions grounded in data and evidence — not just intuition or visual trends. This multidisciplinary approach is exactly what tech companies, startups, and large corporations have been looking for when hiring. Professionals who understand not only how to design an interface, but why each element is there and what impact it has on the journey of the person using the product.
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Donnelly explains that before the bachelor’s degree was created, students were already piecing together their own UX path by combining the UX minor offered by the College of Design with independent studies. Now, with a formal four-year degree, they gain a real edge on their resumes. And the minor’s previous track record already proves this approach works — program alumni have been hired as full-time employees at companies like U.S. Bank, Best Buy, Target, and Medtronic.
Another important factor is the ecosystem the University of Minnesota provides. The College of Design already has well-established programs in architecture, graphic design, and urban planning, which creates a naturally collaborative environment. UX Design students will share space with peers from other design disciplines, exchanging perspectives and expanding their repertoire in an organic way. That kind of academic experience is hard to replicate in shorter programs or fully online formats.
A hot job market drives the decision
It is no coincidence that this degree is launching now. The job market for User Experience professionals has been growing steadily over the past several years, fueled by the accelerated digitization of services, advances in artificial intelligence, and the increasing need for digital products that are intuitive and accessible. Companies in sectors like technology, healthcare, retail, and finance are investing heavily in skilled designers to improve their digital interactions, and UX roles are among the fastest-growing and highest-paying positions in the design and tech space.
Behind every website, every app, anything you use, there is someone designing that thing, Donnelly says. He emphasizes that more and more companies are investing in UX because the impact goes straight to the bottom line. If you pull up a website on your phone and it does not work well, does not look good, how long are you going to stay? Those are real dollars lost.
The University of Minnesota’s decision also reflects a shifting mindset in the world of Design Education. For a long time, higher education treated design as something predominantly visual and artistic. Now, with the creation of UX-focused programs, universities are acknowledging that design is also about logic, empathy, complex problem-solving, and collaboration with engineering and product teams. This curricular evolution matches what the market figured out a while ago — that the modern designer needs to be a hybrid professional, able to move between qualitative and quantitative data, between wireframes and business strategy.
Real stories from people who already walked this path
To understand the practical impact a UX education can have on a career, it helps to hear from people who went through the University of Minnesota and now work in the field.
Eliana Smelansky, class of 2022, earned her undergraduate degree in marketing at the university’s Carlson School of Management and supplemented her education with an interdisciplinary design minor offered by the College of Design. After an internship that turned into a merchandising role at Target, Smelansky realized she wanted something more creative. She then completed a six-month UX/UI bootcamp at the University of Minnesota itself. Today, she works as an Experience Designer at Best Buy.
When she heard about the new UX Design bachelor’s degree, Smelansky got excited and shared the news on LinkedIn. For her, if this program had existed when she was at the university, it would have been the obvious choice. A large part of her job involves collaboration, brainstorming concepts, and presenting ideas to stakeholders and leaders. Having a degree where you do all of that in one package — how to deal with stakeholders, how to collaborate, solve problems, and create attractive designs — is definitely something really interesting, Smelansky says.
Another story that illustrates the potential of a UX education is that of Nick Horst, class of 2025. Horst graduated with a computer science degree from the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering, but he added the UX minor to his curriculum — a combination that, according to him, was the deciding factor in landing his dream job.
Horst says he took a class with McLean Donnelly and that it opened his eyes to the intersection of technology and design, which is exactly where he works today. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to work at Respawn Entertainment, a studio owned by Electronic Arts, one of the largest gaming companies in the world.
Horst always knew he wanted to work in video games and stresses that for anyone making games, apps, or any software that requires a user interface, UX is an extremely valuable skill. Today, he works as a Technical Experience Designer on the team behind Apex Legends, a title with a worldwide reach. He started playing Apex Legends back in high school, so working on that project is a full-circle moment for him.
On a daily basis, every time the team develops a new feature or anything new, essentially everything that shows up on screen is something his team programs into the game. When asked about the new bachelor’s degree, he did not hesitate — if he were a freshman today, he would definitely have chosen UX Design as his primary major or strongly considered it as part of a double major.
An education that teaches you how to think
One of the most interesting points Donnelly raises about the new program is that it goes beyond teaching tools or current trends. The coordinator believes the UX Design degree is a great fit for anyone who has a bit of creativity and a visual eye, combined with an interest in computer science. And the range of careers that opens up from this education is pretty wide.
This degree teaches you how to look at problems, find solutions, validate hypotheses, prototype, present work professionally, and receive feedback. It teaches you how to think, Donnelly explains. For him, even as technology changes — and it will change — this foundation will remain relevant and allow students to grow along with it. In the coordinator’s words, it is a forever degree.
This perspective is especially important at a time when artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the design and technology landscape. Generative AI tools can already create layouts, suggest navigation flows, and even run basic usability analyses. However, the ability to understand the human context behind every design decision, to conduct deep qualitative research, and to translate complex needs into intuitive experiences remains an essentially human skill. A degree that prioritizes this kind of thinking prepares professionals to work with artificial intelligence, not to be replaced by it.
The future of Design Education runs through experience
The creation of this bachelor’s degree is more than just institutional news. It signals a trend that will likely spread to other American universities and, eventually, around the world. Design Education is moving beyond aesthetics and visual composition to fully embrace the complexity of the digital world. When a university with the weight and tradition of the University of Minnesota decides to invest in a full UX Design program, it validates the field as a full-fledged academic discipline — not just a complementary skill or a niche within graphic design or computer science.
For those following the UX Design scene in Brazil, this news also serves as an important barometer. While the country already has specializations and graduate programs in the field, full undergraduate degrees dedicated exclusively to User Experience are still rare there. The University of Minnesota’s move could inspire Brazilian institutions to rethink their curricula and create programs more aligned with what the job market actually needs. After all, demand for qualified UX professionals is only set to increase as more products and services go digital — and as artificial intelligence redefines the way we interact with technology in everyday life.
For the 50 students already enrolled in the first cohort, the opportunity is one of a kind. They will be the first to go through this program in the state and will graduate with a type of preparation that combines academic rigor with direct, hands-on application. In an increasingly competitive job market that values professionals with a systems-level perspective, that combination can make all the difference. And for the User Experience field as a whole, it is yet another clear sign of maturity and growth 🚀
The takeaway is simple: UX stopped being a trend a long time ago and is now establishing itself as a pillar in the education of anyone who wants to build the digital future. The University of Minnesota understood that — and went all in.
