In 2010, Moggridge became the director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, and was a recipient of that institution's lifetime achievement award.

ENGADGET: William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69

The clamshell laptop was patented more than 30 years ago by the British industrial designer Bill Moggridge, who died this week - and we're still using clamshell laptops.

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Perhaps more importantly, when he tried to use the machine himself, Moggridge was exasperated with the difficulty and decided to take the human factor into account for software design.

ENGADGET: William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69