The interior design program at Indiana University Bloomington celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. During the past century, what began as a degree that primarily trained women to run households has evolved into a program that trains students to improve people’s lives through research-driven, human-centered design in the built environment.
Students today must also train for the required professional certification from the Council for Interior Design Qualification, which emphasizes planning and designing interior spaces that serve the diverse needs of people while promoting health, safety and welfare.
Whether designing hospital interiors that encourage the healing process, conducting groundbreaking research that leverages AI and virtual reality, or creating more cost-effective buildings, today’s interior designers are vastly different from those in the 1920s.
The early days of interior design at IU
From homemaking to human-centered design
The interior design program at IU Bloomington emerged from the Department of Home Economics, which was established in 1913. Students were trained in the principles and processes of the science and art of homemaking.
In 1925, the home economics department added faculty member Emma Baie to teach courses in house decoration, dressmaking, and textiles and clothing, marking the origin of the interior design program.
The department’s facilities included a Home Management House, where students lived for a semester to practice managing a home. They gained experience in decorating the home, entertaining, cooking, cleaning, making clothing and even raising a baby.
Each semester, faculty enlisted new parents, often IU faculty or staff, to loan their baby to the practice house. There, students would care for the child round-the-clock, under the tutelage of their supervisors. Parents took their child home on weekends and holidays.
In addition to gaining skills in homemaking, students graduated from the department with foundational knowledge that led to professional work in hospitals, restaurants, hotels and commercial settings, and as buyers or advisors to customers in large stores.
Today, the interior design landscape has changed.
“We’re about people, not paint and pillows,” said Kim Dutkosky, director of the interior design program in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. “We aim to be human-centric in our design, so we teach about human behavior and psychology and how these impact the design of the built environment.”
Those in the field must obtain extensive technical skills while also upholding a moral and ethical responsibility to design code-compliant, accessible and inclusive environments that support a variety of human needs.
Beautiful spaces for healing
Jamie Raymond graduated with a degree in marketing from IU Bloomington in 1994, but she quickly realized she desired something else professionally.
When she told her dad about meeting with faculty in IU Bloomington’s interior design program, he didn’t understand why she would want to go back to school to become a “decorator” — a common misconception about the modern field of interior design.
Raymond forged ahead, earning her interior design degree in 1999. She said it was one of her best life decisions.
After working at an architecture firm in Indianapolis, Raymond co-founded Four Point Design in 2015 with her business partner, Diana Ricks. They specialize in space planning, interior design and furniture specification for clients in healthcare, health and wellness, and higher education settings.
Their portfolio includes interiors for the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, the IU Bloomington Health Sciences Building and the Parkview Cancer Institute in Fort Wayne. Their handiwork was recently seen at Riley Children’s Health Emergency Medicine at IU Health Fishers, the first highly skilled pediatric emergency center in the area.
“In the healthcare sector, people think that it’s going to be really institutional and sterile,” Raymond said. “I tell them to look around at healthcare spaces today. They’re beautiful spaces for people to heal.”
The future of interior design
As the field of interior design continues to evolve, IU researcher Hoa Vo is paving the way to the future using artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology. A recipient of the 2025 IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship, Vo’s innovative research strives to understand how people interact with architectural spaces before a building is constructed.
Vo, an assistant professor in the interior design program, creates realistic models of designed spaces using virtual reality. Participants explore the spaces virtually while an AI model developed by Vo analyzes the person’s movement and behavior inside the virtual space, tracking their travel patterns and identifying areas that are less likely to be used.
“This gives designers a ton of information about how people experience the environment before building it,” Vo said. “It’s not only about technology; it’s about understanding humans better, how we can reduce resources and help create optimal designs for the environment.”
Vo hopes her research will provide a tool for designers, architects and urban planners to reduce design errors and costs before construction, create more human-centered designs, and demonstrate the value of AI as a helpful tool rather than a replacement for human work.
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