Mission & Values
Mission & Values
We look at the world in new ways to create the change we hope to see in it.
Since our founding by Bauhaus émigré László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, we’ve continually turned design into a powerful tool anyone can use to transform the systems that shape our lives—from cities, education, and finance to food, healthcare, and technology.
By uniting science and rigor with creativity and rapid iteration, we’re recognized around the globe as pioneers in human-centered design, systems design, and other methods that apply design to the real world.
It’s through these unique approaches that students, communities, and corporations learn to observe the systems they’re surrounded by—and envision the new worlds they can build from them.
Here, learners and leaders discover what design makes possible. It enables us to adapt with the speed, scale, and complexity of life. To anticipate change and the impact of our actions. And, most importantly, to imagine—then create—brighter futures for us all.
We offer a range of rigorous graduate programs that expand the tenets and applications of human-centered design, systems-based design, and holistic design.
We provide organizations education and trainings to help meet change head-on and face the future with a plan for success.
We partner with organizations to uncover solutions to today’s most urgent issues—from cities, education, and finance to food, healthcare, and technology.
Repairing Critical Systems and Services
By taking the large view of systemic problems and the human-centered view of individual cases, we work to improve both individual experiences and system efficacy.
Considering various levels of literacy and competency in given domains, we improve accessibility and achieve more equitable outcomes in areas like healthcare and education.
Reimagining Civic Infrastructures
Today’s biggest and most important issues affect large populations on the local, federal, and global levels. Creating distributed governance, ID responds to large-scale problems effectively, ensures access, and promotes equity and sustainability.
We are a key partner in urban reinvention and redeveloping food systems.
Developing New Value Models
As pioneers of human-centered design and early champions of applying design principles to business, ID is at the vanguard of creating value out of emerging technologies. Going further than considering our audiences’ individual needs as consumers, we consider the impact of a new product or platform on all levels of society, both now and over time.
Combining our expertise in entrepreneurial innovation, speculating futures, and behavioral design, we ethically leverage technological advancements to produce results.