Inventor of Laptop
About Bill Moggridge...
Bill Moggridge, co-founder of IDEO and director of the
Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, died September 8th,
2012, following a battle with cancer. He was 69. An outspoken advocate
for the value of design in everyday life, Bill pioneered interaction
design and integrated human factors into the design of computer software
and hardware.
Bill Moggridge founded his design firm in London in 1969, adding a
second office in 1979 in Palo Alto, in the heart of California’s Silicon
Valley. He designed the first laptop computer, the GRiD Compass, and
pioneered interaction design as a discipline. In 1991, he merged his
company with those of David Kelley and Mike Nuttall to form IDEO. Bill
was active in design education throughout his career, notably as
visiting professor in interaction design at the Royal College of Art in
London, and consulting associate professor in the design program at
Stanford University. He was most interested in what people want, who
they are, and how they interact with other people, things, and places.
He was the author of
Designing Media (2010), which examines the connections between traditional media and the emerging digital realm, and
Designing Interactions (2006), which explores how interaction design transforms daily life.
Designing Interactions, was named one of the 10 Best Innovation and Design Books of 2006 by
BusinessWeek.
Bill was a Royal Designer for Industry, a 2010 winner of the Prince
Philip Designers Prize, and a 2009 winner of Cooper-Hewitt’s National
Design Award for Lifetime Achievement.
A graduate of the Central School of Design in London, Bill’s
professional activities included those of advisor to the British
government on design education (1974), trustee of the Design Museum in
London (1992-1995), visiting professor in interaction design at the
Royal College of Art in London (1993), and member of the Steering
Committee for the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy (2003).
