In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design was folded into Illinois Tech's School of Design & Society.
This website is an archive of the impactful and inspirational work produced by the ID community before that transition.

László Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, treating design as a discipline that was teachable, testable, and consequential. Nine decades on, its scope had widened from the things people use to the systems they depend on: hospitals, government agencies, classrooms, supply chains, digital platforms. Along the way, ID community members developed the published research, methods, and frameworks that designers rely on every day.

Chief among them is human-centered design: close attention to how people actually live, and advocacy for what that research reveals. It shaped designers who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity: curious, rigorous, inclusive, and stubbornly optimistic about design's ability to change the systems that shape our lives.

To every one of them, who taught, studied, built, critiqued, and stayed late in the studio: thank you, and keep designing.

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Albert Shum

Advisor to the Dean

Headshot of Albert Shum in black and white

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Albert Shum is a career design leader who retired from Microsoft as Corporate Vice President of Design in 2022. With over 25 years of global consumer brand and design development expertise, Albert has led strategic initiatives across multidisciplinary teams at Nike and Microsoft, scaling design thinking and launching products that influence millions.

He led the recent efforts to reimagine Microsoft’s web experiences, including search, browser and services across a suite of products that reached over a billion customers at work, home, and school. He had previously led Windows, Windows Mobile, Xbox, HoloLens and device experiences.

Albert’s design ethos lies at the intersection of business, experience, and technology (BXT), with a focus on responsible design. He believes that the most successful user interactions are those that respect the human need and fully consider their impact at scale. He has spoken about responsible design to audiences at AdobeMAX, Innovation Forum in London, 99U Conference, Fast Company Innovation Festival, MIT, and the School of Visual Arts. He is currently a Class Advisor at the Institute of Design.

Albert’s work in design leadership has helped shape conversations on diversity and inclusion throughout the industry. Albert has served as a mentor, partner, and leader in programs like the Adobe Design Circle and its Scholarship Fund, the Design for Inclusivity Industry Summit, the LEAP apprenticeship program at Microsoft, and in student design challenges with IxDA, AIGA, and the Emily Carr University of Art & Design.

He has a master’s degree in product design from Stanford and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo.