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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Analysis + Synthesis

Analysis + Synthesis

The core design process class at the Institute of Design; students will learn a flexible and systematic approach for problem solving.

“
The tools and practices from this class are the ones I use most often at work. I still refer to the slides frequently.
—ID alum

Objective & Outcomes

The focus on methods has created the erroneous belief that in order to think like a designer you simply need to fill out a set of methods templates. The comprehensive problem-solving process (AKA design) is far more complex. This course will teach a three-phase process: 

  1. Start the process by thinking deeply about the issues involved (not the problem).
  2. Establish a point of view and a clear direction for moving forward. 
  3. Produce a detailed plan for the implementation of your intervention.

The process will act as a scaffolding for three levels of learning: design outcomes, ways of thinking, and specific practices.

  • Design outcomes: what we build, the consequences, and the results of the process. 
  • Ways of thinking: how we think, the modes and approaches we use to achieve the design outcomes. 
  • Specific practices: what we do, the techniques and tools used during the process.

After completing this course, students will demonstrate:

  • Command of a rigorous but flexible process that can be applied to most design problems 
  • Demonstrated proficiency in producing intended design outcomes 
  • Dexterity of thinking: from strategy to implementation details 
  • Ability to select and apply appropriate practices during a design project

Typical Schedule

  • Session 1: Conduct Research
  • Session 2: Clustering & Building Frameworks
  • Session 3: Coding Data
  • Session 4: User Needs to Specs
  • Session 5: Agile / User Stories
  • Session 6: Systems
  • Session 7: Quantitative Reasoning
  • Session 8: How Might We & Design Principles
  • Session 9: Brainstorming Methods
  • Session 10: Systemic Exploration
  • Session 11: Concept Systems
  • Session 12: Decision Making
  • Session 13: Experiments & Prototyping

See all MDes Courses