If you were among those that got all tingly at last month's Mediabistro Circus session on user interface design, have we got news for you. The Steven Heller-helmed MFA Design braintrust over at the School of Visual Arts has just announced a new advanced degree program in interaction design. Beginning in the fall of next year, the two-year MFA in Interaction Design will focus on the critical role of the designer in creating useful and usable digital products and services. The department will be chaired by Liz Danzico, an expert in information architecture and usability, who conceived the program with Heller. "In its most basic form, interaction design involves a conversation between a person and an interface," notes Danzico. "Whether it's a website, a mobile phone, or a kiosk at the airport, great interaction design starts with an understanding of people." And speaking of people, click "continued..." for a taste of the impressive faculty members—encompassing web and graphic designers, writers, and design researchers—who have signed on so far.

According to SVA, the MFA in Interaction Design faculty includes: Christopher Fahey, founding partner, Behavior, and author, graphpaper.com; David Womack, co-author, Becoming a Digital Designer: A Guide to Careers in Web, Video, Broadcast, Game, and Animation Design (Wiley, 2007), editor, Adobe ThinkTank, and consultant on digital strategy and content; Jason Santa Maria, creative director, Happy Cog Studios, and author, jasonsantamaria.com; Karen McGrane, founding partner, Bond Art + Science; Khoi Vinh, design director, NYTimes.com, and author, Subtraction.com; Paul Ford, novelist and editor/programmer, Harper's, and author, Ftrain.com, Rachel Abrams, designer, writer and creative director, Turnstone Consulting LLC; and Jeffrey Zeldman, founder, Happy Cog Studios, co-founder, The Web Standards Movement, publisher, A List Apart, the standard reference for Web design, and co-founder, An Event Apart, a conference for people who make websites.