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.

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Rush University and Institute of Design Announce Collaboration

The Effort Launches September 28, 2021

By Kristin Gecan

September 13, 2021

Nurse speaking to a member of the public

In an unprecedented multi-year partnership, Rush University Graduate College and ID’s Action Lab are collaborating on an innovative, community-centered approach to refining a health care model focused on equity.

“
We’ve seen thousands of deaths due to COVID-19, and we’ve seen how racism has intensified the effects of the pandemic. It’s time to take action against the factors that led us here. The Rush-ID collaboration will make real progress toward equitable, people-centered care, and I support these vital efforts to make our local, regional, and national healthcare systems more equitable.
—Illinois State Senator Mattie Hunter (Third District)

Associate Research Professor Kim Erwin, MDes, leads the collaboration at ID. Erwin has founded multiple centers to bring design to healthcare in Chicago. She leverages her years of experience applying design methods to the challenges of healthcare delivery in diverse clinical settings and patient populations. Assistant Professor Santosh Basapur, Ph.D., leads the collaboration at Rush. Basapur is the director of design at Rush University and an experienced human-centered health systems integration researcher and design educator.

On September 28, Illinois State Senator Mattie Hunter will join a virtual summit launching the Rush-IIT Institute of Design Action Lab project on equitable healthcare. The summit is open to the public. View the program and register here.

“
It’s time for a paradigm shift in the way we view and provide healthcare. This is the right problem to move on right now, and we have the right team—an unparalleled group of healthcare and design experts.
—Carlos Teixeira, Charles L. Owen Professor of Design at ID and director of ID's Action Lab

The graduate schools at ID and Rush University will offer courses, seminars, and events in the coming months for students, clinicians, and executives. Sign up here and select “Action Lab” to learn more and receive findings.

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