Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Design (Interaction Design)

4 Years On Campus Bachelors Program

Queensland University of Technology

Program Overview

This double‑degree brings together business smarts and interaction design flair — ideal for creative thinkers who want to shape how people interact with technology while understanding the pulse of business. You’ll learn to design intuitive user experiences, build digital ecosystems, and back them with strong business insight for real-world impact.

Curriculum Structure

Year 1
In your first year, you’ll lay a solid foundation in both business and design. On the business side, you might explore courses like Business Law and Ethics and Economics, learning to make thoughtful and ethical decisions. Meanwhile, in design, you’ll dive into the first of the Impact Lab units, where you collaborate with students from other disciplines to tackle real-world challenges through creative thinking.

Year 2
Your second year deepens your business knowledge with units such as Data Analysis and Marketing, helping you understand customers and markets. Simultaneously, you’ll move into design studio work — exploring human‑centred design, design thinking, and service innovation through interactive design units that sharpen your problem‑solving mindset and technical skills.

Year 3
In year three, you begin to specialise. Depending on your business major (like marketing, finance, or management), you’ll take focused units in that area. On the design side, you’ll tackle more advanced studios in things like augmented reality, experience design, and interface design — building your portfolio with meaningful digital artefacts and prototypes.

Year 4
Your final year brings everything together. You’ll take capstone business subjects — perhaps something like Managing Investments or Client Relationships — where you apply your business strategy in real or simulated contexts. In design, you’ll complete a major design project, bringing together tools, theory, and creativity to solve a real interaction challenge. The course may also include a work‑integrated learning or industry engagement component, giving you hands-on experience and professional connections.

Focus Areas:
Human‑centred design, design thinking, UX/UI, service innovation, business strategy, ethical decision‑making

Learning Outcomes:
Graduates will be able to design compelling interactive experiences, think strategically in business environments, communicate professionally, and lead innovation at the intersection of design and commerce.

Professional Alignment (Accreditation):
This degree is intentionally crafted to develop both design practitioners and business professionals — equipping you with industry‑relevant skills and ethical business judgment that make you highly employable in design-led companies or business environments.

Reputation (Employability Rankings):
QUT is well regarded in the creative and design fields, and its strong reputation in business education means graduates of this double degree are highly attractive to employers. The mix of design and business gives you a versatile and "future‑proof" profile — especially in a world where companies increasingly value design-minded strategists.

Experiential Learning (Research, Projects, Internships etc.)

This double degree at QUT is really special because it doesn’t just teach you theory — it builds the kind of career-ready experience you’ll actually use. You’ll develop strong business thinking — learning to make ethical decisions, communicate professionally, and operate on a global stage — while simultaneously building hands-on design skills in interaction design. Because you’re studying both simultaneously, your business knowledge directly feeds into your creative design projects, giving you a unique, strategic mindset that many designers or business grads don’t get.

Here are the real, experiential-learning highlights in this program:

You’ll work in interaction design studios, where you tackle real‑world briefs and use practices like human‑centred design, design thinking, experience design, service innovation, and augmented reality.
There’s industry work experience, giving you the chance to intern or collaborate with real companies in design and technology.
You can go on international study tours, which means traveling overseas and learning from different design cultures and professional contexts.
Networking is built in — you’ll engage with national and international design professionals, helping you build connections and understand design careers from the inside.

All of this means when you graduate, you don’t just have a degree — you have a portfolio of practical work, real-world experience, and the business insight to back it up.

Progression & Future Opportunities

Progression & Future Opportunities

When you graduate from this double degree, you’ll have a powerful mix of business savvy and interaction design expertise — which is increasingly valuable in today’s tech-driven, experience-focused world. This balance means you’re not just designing things that look good; you understand how they fit into markets, companies, and real user needs.

As a graduate, you could move into roles like:

Interaction Designer — working on intuitive interfaces and user flows for apps or websites
UX / UI Designer — focusing on the user experience and visual design of digital products
Product Designer — combining your design and business knowledge to help shape product strategy and execution
User Researcher — using design thinking to deeply understand user needs and inform business decisions

Here’s what this means for you:

Employability Support: QUT has a robust Career and Employment Services team offering career planning, résumé advice, interview prep, and even a mentor scheme with industry professionals — all geared toward helping you launch your career.
Work-Integrated Learning (WIL): The degree includes real-world experience through internships, placements, and industry projects, so you graduate not just with theory but tangible, practical skills.
Industry Partnerships: QUT’s design students get access to exciting partnerships — for example, there’s a Design Academy internship program with BMW Group, where students work on advanced design projects.
Professional Accreditation: Graduates qualify for membership with the Design Institute of Australia (DIA), which can boost your professional credentials.
Career Flexibility: Thanks to the business component, your design skills aren’t limited to creative agencies — you can work in sectors like health tech, enterprise innovation, data visualization, or even startups.

Further Academic Progression:

If you ever want to go deeper after your bachelor’s, there are a few natural pathways:

Postgraduate Design Degrees: You could pursue a Master of Design (or similar) to specialize further in UX, service design, or emerging interaction technologies.
Switch / Combine: If you find you're passionate about both business and design, there are options like combining with a Master of Business or Innovation, applying your double degree background in leadership roles.
Research: With QUT’s strong design faculty, there's a path into research or academic work — exploring human-centered design, AR/VR, or future interaction systems.