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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Recognition

American Hospital Association Recognizes ID’s Equitable Healthcare Lab for Hospital-at-Home Innovation

National Acknowledgment Highlights How ID Helped UChicago Medicine Build an Equitable Model for Care Beyond Hospital Walls

June 11, 2026

The American Hospital Association has spotlighted UChicago Medicine’s Hospital-at-Home program as a national example of care delivery transformation, recognizing a model shaped in collaboration with the Institute of Design’s Equitable Healthcare Lab. The acknowledgment reflects the growing role of design in helping health systems rethink where and how care happens.

Led by Kim Erwin, the Equitable Healthcare Lab partnered with UChicago Medicine to design an end-to-end service model for this new care line, helping translate hospital-quality care into the home setting while maintaining safety, continuity, and equitable access. The work engaged more than 85 patients, community members, frontline providers, and community health workers to understand concerns, identify service requirements, and ensure the model was culturally competent and inclusive by design.

 

ID helped translate hospital-quality care into the home setting while maintaining safety, continuity, and equitable access.

What Is Hospital-at-Home?

The Equitable Healthcare Lab helped UChicago Medicine design a new offering, one for patients who need hospital-level care but benefit from being at home. Watch the video to learn more. You can also read a project breakdown.

 

The resulting system included a comprehensive service blueprint, patient and caregiver education materials aligned with health literacy guidelines, and an Equity Roadmap for building inclusive capacity over time. The first Hospital-at-Home patient was enrolled in February 2023, marking a major milestone in the implementation of this design-led systems innovation.

 

When equity is treated as infrastructure, design becomes an essential force in the future of healthcare systems.

A companion communication design project extended this work into the patient journey itself. Building from the original research and blueprint, ID students developed communication touchpoints spanning recruitment and enrollment, transition to home, ongoing care, and discharge—translating complex service operations into clear, supportive experiences for patients and caregivers.

This national recognition affirms what the Equitable Healthcare Lab continues to demonstrate: when equity is treated as infrastructure, design becomes an essential force in the future of healthcare systems.

Read more about this Hospital at Home project recognition at the American Hospital Association website.

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Equitable Healthcare Lab Director Kim Erwin featured in Crain’s