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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Reimagining Team Dynamics in Remote Work

By Sai Allena | Han Wen (Vanessa) Chang | Grace Parks Hall | Michael Ho | Aabha Kale | Sanya Shah

May 10, 2024

Reimagining Team Dynamics in Remote Work

We started with the Find stage, where we collected data and desk research from different sources and primary data from over 35 participants. In the Analyze phase, this data was carefully examined to refine insights and reframe the problem statement to better understand remote work dynamics. The Strategize phase focused on developing a matrix to measure impact versus duration, exploring various mechanisms for addressing these dynamics, and emphasizing scalable frameworks.

Prototypes were created and iteratively tested in the Prototype and Test stages, with the final testing revealing that over 70% of participants were interested in the developed strategies, demonstrating their potential effectiveness. The holistic approach of frameworks that targets different stages of projects and includes multiple stakeholders earned us the 1st Place Winner Prize at Rotman Design Challenge 2024.

View the full project here.

Project Details

  • Class: Rotman Design Challenge 2024
  • Instructor: n/a
  • Project Partner: Workomics
A diagram that displays the current dynamic of remote teams.

Current Dynamic of Remote Teams

The Remote Revitalization Toolkit
The Evolving Model for Remote Teams

The Evolving Model for Remote Teams