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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ID Faculty Appointed to Leadership Roles at Systemic Design Journal

Contexts Names Ruth Schmidt Associate Editor and Adds Kim Erwin to Editorial Board

March 28, 2025

Portrait of Ruth Schmidt

ID continues to shape the future of design scholarship with two faculty members taking on leadership roles at Contexts—The Systemic Design Journal, the first journal dedicated to research communications and scholarly reporting in the field of systemic design.

Associate Professor Ruth Schmidt has been appointed Associate Editor of the journal, while Associate Professor and Equitable Healthcare Lab Director Kim Erwin joins the editorial board. Their appointments reflect ID’s commitment to addressing complex challenges through systems design.

A publication of the Systemic Design Association, Contexts emphasizes scholar development and is a signatory of the DORA, the Declaration on Research Assessment.

Ruth has worked closely with DORA to advance equitable approaches to research evaluation. As an editor, she brings experience integrating systems design and behavioral science to address challenges more systematically and equitably.

“
Rather than simply chasing traditional metrics of success, Contexts focuses on cultivating high-quality scholars and scholarship, especially for early-career academics. This aligns with the work I already do with DORA on responsible research assessment, which made it a really appealing opportunity.
—Ruth Schmidt, Associate Professor, Institute of Design

Kim Erwin holding up design prints

Kim Erwin

As a member of the advisory board, Kim contributes extensive experience applying human-centered design and communication methods to complex challenges. Through her work directing ID’s Equitable Healthcare Action Lab, she designs solutions to complex care issues.

Contexts publishes research that advances design, innovation, and policy outcomes across complex social and technical systems. This emphasis on systemic approaches to challenging problems aligns with ID’s interdisciplinary vision, where design methods are applied to create meaningful change in organizations, communities, and systems.

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