Bill Moggridge, British laptop designer, dies aged 69

British industrial designer Bill Moggridge, who created the clamshell-shape design for computer laptops, has died from cancer. He was 69.

Moggridge designed the Grid Compass computer in 1979, PC Mag reported. 

The magnesium-cased computer retailed for $8,150 when it was released in 1982.

The price of the computer was too high for the average customer but it was used by the US military due to its toughness, the BBC reported.

It was later installed on board the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985, the Associated Press reported.

An obituary published in The New York Times said Moggridge was widely viewed “as a father of the field of interaction design,” which aims to improve the human experience of digital gadgets.

For the past two years, Moggridge had been the director of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

“Beloved by the museum staff and the design community at large, Bill touched the lives of so many through his wise council, boundary-pushing ideas and cheerful camaraderie,” said Caroline Baumann, associate director of the museum, in a statement.

Moggridge is survived by his wife, Karin, and two sons Alex and Erik.

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