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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Digital Media: CuttingSense Tatsujin

By Kazufumi Mizunuma

May 10, 2024

Slice with confidence: Real-time feedback for interactive design

As a knife-handling electronic innovation, this finely crafted 3D-printed knife attachment provides real-time feedback. Using sound, facial expressions of an on-screen character, and vibrations, it effectively guides users on the correct slicing angle and rhythmic cutting skills. Harmonious music rewards precise technique, infusing engaging gamification elements into the cooking process. This project merges technology with food preparation, fostering skillful cutting through precise feedback and interactive engagement. This product invites users on a cooking journey where precision meets playfulness and enhances cooking skills to ensure every meal preparation is an enjoyable and enriching experience.

Project Details

  • Class: Digital Media
  • Instructor: Paolo Tanedo

Kazu Mizunuma

MDes 2024