Net Positive Behavioral Action Lab | Institute of Design

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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Net Positive Behavioral Action Lab

Design can help us understand humans, their behavior, and the results.

The Net Positive Behavioral Action Lab focuses on collaborative projects in a variety of complex domains—from research assessment reform to global development—that require humanity-centered design, applied behavioral science, and systems thinking.

Through experimentation and real-world application, we generate behavioral design approaches to understand and address some of the thorniest issues our society faces and bring about net positive results. We recognize the unique challenges of behavior design within our complex systems, and use a transdisciplinary lens to move from theory into practice.

Pedestrians at an intersection heading different directions.

Collaborators

DORA

International Rescue Committee

Carnegie Mellon University

Leadership

Lab Director Ruth Schmidt

Ruth discusses her experience in design, both corporate and academic, and what energizes her about the work she’s doing today.

Read Ruth’s full bio here.

Portrait of Ruth Schmidt

Ruth Schmidt

Associate Professor of Behavioral Design and Net Positive Behavioral Action Lab Director

Contact Net Positive Behavioral Action Lab Director Ruth Schmidt for inquiries about and partnerships with the Net Positive Behavioral Action Lab.

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Featured Work

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Ruth Schmidt Contributes to Reformscape

Ruth Schmidt’s Research Featured in First UNESCO Open Science Outlook Report

Using Behavioral Science to Encourage Sustainable Food Consumption

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