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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Identifying Bias in Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure Decisions

In Nature Index, ID professor Ruth Schmidt shares seven biases to watch out for in research assessment

By Kristin Gecan

April 5, 2021

Rethinking Research Assessment: Unintendended & Cognitive System Biases

In “Rethinking research assessment: 7 sources of bias to watch out for at your institution” at Nature Index, ID Associate Professor Ruth Schmidt explains why introducing diversity and anti-bias training initiatives at higher education institutions isn’t enough:

“
Research assessment is a systemic issue, not an individual issue. Unless you embed debiasing into institution systems and structures, you’re only solving a little piece of the problem.
—ID Associate Professor Ruth Schmidt

Read the full post to better understand the role of confirmation bias, the halo effect, and more. More information is also available via a four-part blog series. And learn more about Schmidt’s work with the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) here.

A one-pager is also available to download.

Related

DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) logo

Rethinking Research Assessment

Windmills: Twenty questions about design behavior for sustainability

Want to build a sustainable future? Study designers, Nature Sustainability report says

Tom MacTavish recognized with IEEE Milestone Award

ID Professor Tom MacTavish Part of Team Recognized with IEEE Milestone Award