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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Civic Design

Civic Design

Covers the emerging practice of applying design to areas of civic oriented challenges.

This course is not available for the upcoming semester. Consult with your advisor for similar options.

Objective & Outcomes

This course will equip students with the knowledge and skills to deeply understand the contextual challenges of applying design in the civic sector and the analytical skills to incorporate leading practices that help governments generate meaningful change in communities.  

Upon completion of the course, students will have strengthened core research, idea generation and facilitation skills, practiced collaborative analysis and synthesis, and generated community-based approaches to tackling civic challenges through the application of design methods to a real-world practice area.

Typical Schedule

  • Session 1: Introduction & Team Formation
  • Session 2: Overview & Approach to Civic Design
  • Session 3: Making the Case for Quantitative & Qualitative Data
  • Session 4: Engaging the Community as Co-Designers
  • Session 5: Framing the Future Through Place-Based Artifacts
  • Session 6: Leading Change & Demonstrating Public Value
  • Session 7: Wrap-Up & Final Mock Presentation for a Senior Government Official (i.e. Mayor, City Manager, Governor etc.)

See all MDes Courses