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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Fundamentals of Product Design

Fundamentals of Product Design

Explores the fundamental challenge of embodying a solution in a physical form.

“
One of the most important aspects of this course is learning how to think and create iteratively; and consequently, how to explain your design choices and research findings to both your team and outside audiences.
—Catherine Wieczorek, MDes 2021

Objective & Outcomes

This course provides students with key themes and principles underlying the design of products. Understanding the fundamentals of products is essential to work on interdisciplinary projects and tackle contemporary design problems. Students looking to understand how products are conceived and made will find this class valuable.

Beginning with an introduction to product design, themes and principles are examined each week, and students are tasked with demonstrating these themes in their weekly assignment. The intent is to generate a base of knowledge that will become a Field Guide to product fundamentals. The range of products discussed extends from everyday products e.g., a toothbrush, to commercial products e.g., medical CT scanners. The topics of sustainability, digital products, and design-for-dignity are examined.

Upon completing the course, students will be able to characterize several approaches to design practice and see how these have applications in many types of contemporary design projects.

Typical Schedule

  • Session 1: Introduction
  • Session 2: Sensorial
  • Session 3: Simple
  • Session 4: Enduring
  • Session 5: Playful
  • Session 6: Thoughtful
  • Session 7: Sustainable

See all MDes Courses