Bill Moggridge

British designer, author, educator and cofounder of IDEO, Bill Moggridge was a true champion of human-centred design. He is one of the handful of design practitioners, who pioneered interaction design as a mainstream discipline, and is credited with coining the term. He designed what is widely regarded as the first laptop computer, the GRiD Compass. In his own words Bill was deeply interested “in people and their relationship to things”. I had an opportunity to meet Bill at MIT. While speaking at EmTech emerging technologies conference, in 2009, he graciously spent an hour discussing with me topics ranging from the complexity and context in design to the power of multi-disciplinary teams, and design thinking, another concept he helped pioneer. As always thoughtful and articulate, Bill described design thinking as being “more about what to do rather than just how to do it”. As a successful design practitioner Bill was well aware that there is no safe way to true progress. Real radical and disruptive innovations always entail taking calculated risks. He discussed the typical corporate innovation process as being “dull and dreary” and leading to small, incremental innovations contrasting it with human-centered design thinking of “fail often and fail early.” “If you really want to make a leap forward, there is an opportunity to harness the power of the intuitive, which is what designers do anyway.” Throughout his career Bill advocated starting the innovation process “from the people side” rather than leading with technology or business concerns. “We always start by trying to understand the latent needs and desires of people and then seeing if we can find the technology and the business to make that successful”. Late in the evening after our interview, a friend of mine staying at the same hotel as Bill spotted him surrounded by MIT students discussing what he cared about most, and the perspective engineering students need to hear most – the human-centered approach to innovation. In the Fall of 2012, while composing an email to Bill, asking him to speak with me for the Empathic Disruption project, I opened the Fast Company’s Co.Design website to find that Bill had passed away, losing his battle with cancer. Even in sickness, as a director of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, he led the way forward, by reinventing the hundred year old institution and their Andrew Carnegie Mansion based home. Hopefully they will both stand as active reminders of the importance of humanity in the technologically driven world, Bill advocated for all of his career.
See an abridged version of my interview with Bill at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8W5zpThZBw