Students Build Startups in Third-Year Interaction Design Course

Led by product leader and entrepreneur Ryan Smith, 'Creating a Design Startup' saw students create market-ready products from the ground up for presentation to local industry.

A recent Interaction Design course at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) challenged students to develop an app alongside a viable business plan for presentation to industry professionals from across the Lower Mainland.

Fourth-year student Shirley Zhao says the 12-week course provided a comprehensive introduction to entrepreneurship as well as a transformative context for how design skills can be mobilized to build a business.

"This class was definitely a game changer," she says. "We prepared business reports and go-to-market strategies, operational plans, validation, research, and we showcased all of it in front of real industry representatives. I also gained a much better understanding of how a startup would work from an entrepreneurial perspective. As a designer, I feel like I now have a huge advantage in terms of standing out as a potential employee."

The course, called 'Creating a Design Startup,' was developed by designer and ECU faculty member Haig Armen in partnership with the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship. The fall 2025 edition was taught by Ryan Smith, CEO and Product Lead of Smith Horn Group, who gathered tech and design leaders from across Metro Vancouver for the students' final presentation. Guests included staff and executives from companies such as Metalab, Jobber, Creative Destruction Lab and the Mark Anthony Group.

'Creating a Design Startup' is part of Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship's Pathways for Creative Futures program, delivered in partnership with the Business + Higher Education Roundtable, and with support from the Government of Canada.

Building a T-shaped practice

Ryan notes his course was, in part, aimed at turning his students into "T-shaped" designers. The concept refers to honing both specific, deep expertise (the vertical part of the "T") and an ability to work across functions (the horizontal part of the "T").

A T-shaped skillset helps ensure professional resilience in a rapidly evolving industry, he says.

"2025 is going to go down as a big inflection point for how we work, especially for knowledge workers," he says, noting industry is increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to automate many routine tasks in addition to requiring broad collaboration across specialized departments.

"I see senior people in this industry consistently saying the most important skill to learn is workflow — so, how to stitch together different tools and assets in sequence rather than becoming a single-tool specialist. And we are delivering that type of training to students through this project of creating a design startup so they can have more confidence in their ability to stay competitive in that environment."

Human decisions matter

Fourth-year student Amy Ma calls the course "intense," adding that the entire class keenly felt the steep learning curve in the early weeks.

But by the end, Amy says she felt far more confident in her abilities and in her understanding of the tools and expectations she'll encounter post-graduation.

"This course helped me understand how designers fit into production workflows," she says. "We also learned a lot about AI — like how it may not be appropriate or even useful for creative work but can help accelerate administrative tasks like market research, validating findings, organizing notes and transcribing speech. But interaction design is ultimately about humans. So, humans need to make design decisions because we know each other best."

Interaction Design at ECUAD

Interactivity is everywhere — from apps and websites to physical devices, games, and service systems. You'll gain hands-on experience designing digital and tangible media through sketching, prototyping, and testing.

ECU's interdisciplinary Interaction Design program blends technical skills, critical inquiry and human-centred research while allowing you to take courses in Communication Design, Industrial Design, Animation, and New Media + Sound Art.

Led by expert practitioners, this program prepares you to navigate the evolving fields of UX, interaction design and emerging technologies. Visit the ECUAD website to learn more.