Although the Design Lab does not have a PhD program, students enrolled in PhD programs in existing UCSD departments can often work on design-related dissertations, working with relevant Design Lab faculty.
The Design Graduate Specialization is a set of courses graduate students can choose to take that fit into their home degree program requirements. It is analogous to receiving a minor, but at the graduate level.
The first few courses are underway and new ones are constantly being offered. The minor focuses upon design as a way of thinking, one based on an iterative cycle of field observation, problem finding, and evaluating alternative solutions and tradeoffs by prototyping and testing.
Everyone designs. Design occurs anytime you deliberately change an environment to make things better. You will learn how to design technologies that bring people joy, rather than frustration.
Design Lab Faculty make themselves available every academic quarter to meet and advise their students.