First laptop designer Bill Moggridge dies

NEW YORK: Bill Moggridge, a top British industrial designer who created the first laptop computer in 1979, has died.

The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum said 69-year-old Moggridge, its director since 2010, died on Saturday from cancer.

Describing him as an outspoken advocate for the value of design in everyday life, the National Design Museum said Moggridge pioneered interaction design and integrated human factors into the design of computer software and hardware.

His computer, the Grid Compass, was designed in 1979 and initially used by the US military. It retailed at USD 8,150 and was installed on board the space shuttle Discovery in 1985.

The magnesium-cased device was distinctive because the screen display folded down over the keyboard.

Moggridge founded a London-based design company in 1969, which is now a global consultancy firm called Ideo.

He also became visiting professor in interaction design at the Royal College of Art in London and consulting associate professor in design at Stanford University, California.

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.

In 2010 he was given a lifetime achievement award by the Duke of Edinburgh.