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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Students Recognition

Good Interventions Exhibit Showcases Healthcare Innovation by ID Students

Recognized for Creating At-Home Monitoring to Improve Healthcare in Africa

July 12, 2023

Woman wearing a medical device and holding up a cell phone

A team of ID students has been selected for The New School’s 2023 Good Interventions competition and exhibit. Their project, Neomita, aims to improve healthcare in Africa through at-home health monitoring. Neomita is one of fifteen projects chosen for outstanding economic and strategic design.

“
I believe a successful and innovative product relies on the effective translation of user, technology and business insights into every aspect of a design thinking process.
—Jiwon Shin (MDes 2024)

Through a Product Design Workshop taught by Martin Thaler and sponsored by healthcare startup Neopenda, the team of ID students —Adelyn Soetyono (MDes + MBA 2023), Keval Parekh (MDes 2023), Jiwon Shin (MDes 2024), and Han Wen Chang (MDes + MBA 2024)—sought to improve access and health outcomes in Africa with wearable technology and pharmacy partnerships.

By conducting user-centered research and collaborating with local stakeholders, the team designed Neomita, a four-in-one vital monitoring device, as well as a digital platform, and pharmacy partnership strategies. The approach ensures affordability and access while striving to decrease mortality rates through more accurate patient monitoring.

Use-Case for Neomita

The Good Interventions Exhibition investigates how design can serve as a means of comprehending our world and aims to bring together new and exciting work by designers who approach economies, societies, and politics in new ways.

Neomita was selected from over sixty design entries submitted by over one hundred designers across nine countries as an outstanding application of design, arts, and social sciences that address the pressing issues of our era.

View Neomita and other selected projects on the Good Interventions website.

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