Taken from The New York Times

In 1979, William Moggridge was hired by Grid Systems to design a new type of computer – one that could fit into a briefcase. His ingenious solution was a clamshell case, roughly 38 x 30 centimetres, which popped open to reveal a luminous screen on top that folded over the keyboard on bottom. The Compass, as this groundbreaking laptop was called, went on sale for about $8000.  It even made trips aboard the space shuttle starting in 1983.

Moggridge, who died at 69, was not only the designer of that first laptop, he is also widely viewed as a father of the field of interaction design, and discipline that focuses on improving the human experience of digital products.

In his book Designing Interactions, Moggridge wrote: “I had the experience of a lifetime developing a design that was innovating in so many ways. I developed the way that the screen was hinged to fold down over the keyboard for carrying.”  In fact, almost every laptop since has used some form of Moggridge’s design.  His name is on the patent, but the rights to the patent were assigned to the client. Grid was bought by the Tandy Corp. in 1988.

William Grant Moggridge was born in London in 1943, and died in 2012.