I didn’t know Bill Moggridge personally.
Working at IDEO, I can sense him in the very brick and mortar. I once proctored a class of his on a free evening, assisting (very frustrated) design and engineering students on how to use Flash for prototyping and storytelling purposes. Bill was a graceful and enigmatic speaker and could imbue the very products and processes in discussion with a magic that wasn’t (couldn’t have been) there before.
Fascination and curiosity reveal truths often lost in the drone of bizDev and strategy that my discipline requires to survive. Though important these things lack an essential characteristic: one might call it a soul; never are they ends to themselves but means with few–if any–intrinsic qualities.
With Bill’s passing I can’t help but wonder when design becomes and/or departs from art. Perspective is one possible differentiator: the Artists tells his own stories while the Designer articulates the stories of others, distilling them, making them tangible and universal. But there must be more differences–many more!
Or not.
Perhaps the most enduring design forever shifts perspectives, never quite resolving or committing to either?