Provost Fred Fehlau announced the selection of user experience pioneer Maggie Hendrie to lead Art Center’s new Interaction Design program. Formally launching in Fall 2012, Art Center will be the first school in Southern California to offer an undergraduate degree in Interaction Design.

(c) Art Center College of Design/Four Eyes Photography

“Both as a teacher and founder of multiple User Experience and Interaction Design departments in industry, Maggie has a proven track record for weaving cross-departmental, multidisciplinary programs that leverage human-centered design,” Mr. Fehlau said. “We’re confident in her ability to drive the complex institutional, technical and design factors needed to deliver those skills and vision to our students.”

Ms. Hendrie said, “Interaction Designers must be prepared not only for multidisciplinary projects and work environments but for a medium that can range from gestural sensor driven networks to gameplay and wired cities. As new platforms supporting interactive mediums emerge, others become obsolete. What would the world look like without the screen? We need to develop core, transferrable skills, processes and a creative vision at the undergraduate level. I am thrilled at the opportunity to join a world leader like Art Center to educate the next generation of visionaries in this new field.”

She is the Principal of Maggie Hendrie Design, a cross-channel business and service solution firm providing iPhoneapps, social media campaigns, and consumer-facing online tools and marketingfor such Fortune 500 companies as Allstate, PepsiCo, Sears, Mattel and Toyota Motor Company.

In 2004, Ms. Hendrie founded Sony Pictures Entertainment’s User Experience Competency Center and as Director was responsible for working with Sony divisions worldwide to integrate usability, information architecture and interaction into all Sony-produced devices and cross-platform projects. Prior to that she was Creative Director for User Experience at WhittmanHart/MarchFIRST, Inc., Director for User Experience at Caresoft, and Senior User Interface Designer at Cybermedia.

As a Senior Lecturer at Loyola Marymount University and Otis College of Art and Design, she played an integral role coordinating and teaching curriculum in Strategic Design and Entrepreneurial Studies between the Graphic Design department at Otis and the Business Studies department at Loyola Marymount.

She received her MA in Liberal Artsfrom Edinburgh University, her MS in Communication+Information Sciences fromthe Nouvelle Sorbonne University, and her Diplôme D’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) from the Paris VII University in Multimedia Design and Communication.

Ms. Hendrie comes to Art Center as a result of an extensive international search conducted this year by a committee of faculty, alumni, students and staff.

Interaction Design is one of several innovative new programs being launched by Art Center in response to the College’s strategic plan, Create Change, which lays the groundwork for Art Center not only to retain its competitive edge, but also to become the foremost art and design college of the 21st century.

Hendrie’s appointment was covered by a number of media outlets including the Wall Street Journal,  Variety, and the Chicago Tribune.