My first week at IDEO, there was an older gentleman who brought a tour through the Toy Lab. Being new, I was racing around furiously trying to prove myself and gave them little regard. But he was very kind and calm and said hello, inquiring for his guests what I was making. I showed him my foam core contraption and he chuckled gently, turning it in his hands. As he held it, he spoke about how we prototype at IDEO, how it is an essential part of the process of invention and discovery. A few days later I opened a book called Designing Interactions and my jaw dropped as I realized who this lovely man was. What a humbling and inspirational experience.

Bill was an incredibly present person. He always seemed to have time for a kind word or thought. I remember him teaching me about ocean currents and whale migrations over the coffee urn, or holding the door for someone behind him, or offering an unexpected compliment — all with that twinkle in his eye and a little smile. From his example I learned to try to walk a little bit slower, have a little more careful regard for my surroundings and appreciation of the Moment in which we live.

Thanks, Bill!

The reality of Bill’s death continues to sting for me. He was just such a distinctively delightful man.

As I read all the stories here, I found myself continuing to say, “Yes, that happened to me with Bill” or “Bill did that for me too,” or “I saw Bill do something just like that.”

My two lessons from this: He was such a wellspring of a person that he could bring so much to so many. Secondly, he had such genuine integrity that he was the same in nearly all settings, with nearly all different people.

Bill, you were an exceptional gift in my life. Thank you.

In 1988, you kindly invited me to a Stanford Design Conference. Later I learned that it was an opportunity you seeded for me to have an interview with ID TWO. You must have gone through a lot of concerns and conflicts in thinking of hiring me who did not even speak much English. I was very young back then and I want to thank you for lending a helping hand and providing me all the opportunities and possibilities that I managed to purely dedicate myself in design and moreover managed to become who I am today. You showed me a standard for richness in everyday life. I am going through all the memories of the past and only now I am realizing the meanings you might have implied in words you shared. You might say to me “at last?” with a smile in your face as always . But facing your death , which I can not still believe, make me reminisce all the days and experiences we shared in the past.

I think it is more like realizing than remembering. I see all the directions you led me, all the opportunities you provided me and the thoughtfulness of you glittering in my mind as twinkling stars. I am only now realizing what your words, your directions, your nods, your suggestions really meant right then. I am now realizing how incompetent my understanding is and how willful I am.

The time I spent with you in San Francisco and the many business trips we made in Japan were very inspiring and they were fulfilled with surprises and impressions. “My most learning time, my 30s, was spent with you . Of course there was design that we shared but there was much more than this. A life which was fulfilled by with a company that was more like a family, with your broadmindedness, your attitude to deal with people one by one, your integrity, kindness, peacefulness and wittiness. Needless to mention that all such experiences greatly influence who I am today. I feel I learnt from you a way to be a man.

Just before finishing my seven and half years time spent in San Francisco, you recommended me to publish and to make a conference with my thoughts with “HARI”.

You spoke to many people and were backing me up for it. This book did not go public at the end but it is true that in order to speak of a concept for an essencial value for beauty in things and people, I had you as a model. I wanted to eventually complete this concept for “HARI” and I wanted to ask you to write the forward of this book. You also contributed a text for my monogram. It was based on a conversation we had on beauty as we were walking in Meiji Shrine. You patiently showed interests in my abstraction and concept that did not make any sense in design and beauty.

I realized I have been spoiled and lived my life willfully until today. I am now giving myself over to a sense of embarrassment and for being inexperienced by facing your death.

I need to stand up on my own. I need to execute all the revelations you suggested in the past from now on. I am truly grateful to you for always being there for me and guiding me.

I am sincerely happy that I met you and I will always be looking up to you.

Thank you so much.

I first meet Bill at a conference in Chicago in 1993. He gave an inspiring talk during which he spoke about how difficult it was to set his new digital wristwatch. In fact, he confessed that he had to rely on his young son to do it for him. Bill then challenged the audience to start paying the same kind of attention to the way people interact with products that was being given to shaping the objects themselves. In a time where technology-centered terms like “hypermedia” were being use to describe interactive systems, Bill characteristically shared the term “interaction design” to describe a fledgling new discipline…one which focused on shaping how we interact with products, services, systems and environments in new ways. I feel so fortunate to have come upon this new discipline at a time where Bill was leading the way forward in such a special way. His positive outlook on design, gentle demeanor, approachability and his passion for people is something I will always draw inspiration from. Thank you so much Bill for all the wonderful interactions.

Bill might not have coined the offer, “Let’s do lunch!”, but he most certainly defined it. We always treated ourselves to “lunch”, whenever we were in geographic range. Those precious meetings were the best excuses to strategize and scheme about design challenges and life. At our first lunch, the day we met as jurors for a design competition in New York City, Bill huddled me off to a corner to ask about my decision not to support the panel’s choice of a product. I was the new kid on the block and the youngest juror. My concerns about the entry had fallen on deaf ears. Bill was the only other designer who appreciated my point that the design didn’t deserve recognition because it failed to address arthritic hands. After lunch, he reversed his vote. Bill was always a champion for universality. Design that embraced inclusivity thrilled him. And now, that “Design For All” has a Guardian Angel in Heaven, I am certain the best is yet to come.

It was amazing luck to visit his North Beach office in 1987. As he did for so many, Bill changed the course of my life. He could see opportunity in what I’d dreamed of, welcomed me into his home and his company, creating the space to evolve my craft among talented colleagues who became dear friends as we grappled with new frontiers in design.

Here are a few of very many things I learned from him:
— graciousness and gratitude are the heart of creative culture (connects and brings out the best in everyone)
— choose your medium before your content (gives you focus, helps you edit, and of course you can change it)
— think about verbs not nouns (keeps your focus on people’s experience)
— stories help people see what you’re seeing (encourages an audience to discover things for themselves)
— imagine that you have a pocket full of gold and just spend it till someone tells you to stop (a liberating antidote to British thrift and caution)

Life is so much better for time with you Bill, with your encouragement, respect, optimism, dignity and playfulness. May you rest in peace and your spirit live on.

Bill was a mentor to me and I am sure many others. A man of great perception and insight but also a generous person in sharing his passion and approach to design. He will be missed.

I joined Moggridge Associates in 1979, instead of taking up an offer to study at the Royal College and never regretted the decision. Working in London and Palo Alto my memories of Bill are of him allowing individuals to develop their own approaches and opinions guided by his wisdom and a light touch. “What about…?” And “how would you solve…?” Never dictating always supporting and guiding, I believe this made me and the many other people he came into contact with better designers, and people.

Bill the person, I recall early on in my career at IDTwo Bill; who knew I had an interest in, (contemporary), music asking if I liked AC/DC, strange question I thought? On discovering that I thought they were OK he told me that his sons had asked him to take them to see AC/DC but as I probably liked them more than he did he would be, “more than happy to let me have his ticket”, and accompany Alex and Eric. So I found my self on the way to Cow Palace and despite wondering how I had been talked into it, had a great night out. Thinking of Karin and the AC/DC fans at this sad time.

I didn’t have the honor of knowing him personally. I discovered his “bible” Designing Interactions while studying in Barcelona. From that day forward I found a reference to several of my questions on innovation and digital design history. Now, back in Buenos Aires, I always say that this book (and the person of Bill) should be pillars for anyone who wishes to study or deepen in innovation and digital issues.

As I kept researching and learning about Bill (IDEO) last year I had the pleasure to personally meet Tom Kelley. As José Ortega y Gasset said: “Men do not live together because, but for large companies undertake together.” (Los hombres no viven juntos porque sí, sino para acometer juntos grandes empresas) and Bill Moggridge still lives in IDEO and many other companies that have the delicious challenge of innovation.

I know I will not be the only one to say that you were the single most influential person and designer in my career and an inspiring role model as a human being. I feel so fortunate to have worked with you, we will miss you Bill Moggridge.

Lots of small vignettes come to mind, and they all include some common denominators: the smile, the ever-present twinkle in his eyes, the subtle remark that carries with it layers of meaning wrapped in British humor, and the ability to see beyond the obvious horizon, with so much humility… What a privilege to have had the opportunity for interactions with such a beautiful soul!