What is postgraduate masters course best to do?

I want to do a postgraduate masters in either Design Anthropology or Communication Design but I can't decide which one. The course outlines for both of them has many similarities. I passion is in UX design and I create IA for websites and design navigation structures. I also love talking to users an

• Answer:

  I can really only try to answer part of your question. Without knowing the full details of either course my feeling would be towards choosing the Communication Design course over the (what appears to be confusingly titled) Design Anthropology course. Although you'd expect the Comms design masters to include some Design Anthropology. Never having heard the term here in the UK I am making an educated guess as t what it means. The reason for this is that from where you are at the moment, taking time to really explore communication design should provide the most benefit to you in terms of understanding a new field and how that new knowledge can improve the knowledge you have in another (related) field. Professionally most organisations, especially the larger they get, tend to split out different roles to help themselves manage their projects better. An example of this is the plethora of titles that orbit around the word design, UX design, UI design, Digital Design, Information Design etc, etc...the list goes on. Splitting out different design roles helps some organisations implement processes to deliver their projects better. They have fixed roles for each title, and these merge together to form a process and delivery chain. However, having worked at or with many different studios, the differences in title changes between organisations, sometimes quite dramatically. What is a "Digital Designer' within one organisation means something completed different in another. The same applies to almost all those titles. The  role is defined by the the organisation rather than it coming from an outside source. What this means is that, from an outsiders perspective you feel you need to be 'this sort of designer'. So to be  a UX designer, you need to focus on just being that, a UX designer. However, that's  wrong as its such a varied role anyway and done in many different ways within many different organisations. The best people I work with in this area tend to be more like authors and creators. By that I mean they have such a wide skill base that they can operate in many varied roles in an expert fashion. They don't really see the role silos that many organisations apply to the whole thing as having much worth. Doing a masters in a visual communication, would actually widen your experience into a totally different production sector. In effect, you'd be able to own more of the process, rather than just a narrow part of it. The flip-side that a Visual comms masters would give you is that it would improve your understanding of IA, UX and UI design. So even if in a job, you're just doing that role, you'll be doing it better because you know such a wider part of the whole design process. How an end user consumes the interface you present to them is such a mix of factors, that only being able to produce wireframes without any visual language to aid in the understanding and consumption of it, would reduce your effectiveness as a designer. This is where extending your understanding to other areas really helps. Take for example typography, which is generally completely overlooked by many UX designers who do not have any expertise visual communication. From a usability perspective, good typography makes content and UI far more understandable. Throw into the mix digital branding, user interface design and the cultural relevance of visual design work and that greater knowledge bass should  begin to show you what the extended expereince doing a visual communcation masters should give you and how it will benefit your passion for UX design.