GRiD Systems Compass Computer – the world’s first laptop
In the late 1970s John Ellenby was on the hunt for some venture capital for his start-up company, GRiD Systems. He wanted to develop a wholly new type of computer. Ellenby saw in the rapidly shrinking size of components an opportunity to create a portable computer the size of a briefcase, targeted at people who wanted to work whilst on the move.
At the same time, Bill Moggridge had recently begun to scout around California looking for a good location to set up a US outpost of the design consultancy he had founded in London at the end of the 1960s. In California, Moggridge discovered both Silicon Valley and Ellenby and GRiD Systems become his first major client.
Idea
Ellenby’s idea was to create a computer with an electronic display that would be small enough to carry around, but powerful enough to complete work tasks away from the office. Moggridge began to visualise a design for this device in order to help people understand what the product would look like and to convince venture capitalists and potential employees of its viability and appeal.
To convey the originality of the idea and the small scale of the computer Moggridge built and presented a realistic physical model rather than a two-dimensional drawing. The Compass Computer’s form was similar to a large dictionary, opening like a clamshell to reveal a flat display on the top half and a keyboard on the bottom.
After raising the money and putting together a core team at GRiD Systems, Moggridge then led the physical design of the final product.
The Grid Compass computer
Impact
The impact of the Compass Computer in the world of computing is obvious: it was the world’s first laptop. Its geometry, layout and clamshell mechanism have been imitated time and again on all manner of portable computing and communications devices. Many of Moggridge’s ideas for the physical design of the Compass Computer were unique at the time, but have since become commonplace: the flat electroluminescent graphic display, the low profile keyboard and the die-cast magnesium enclosure, for example. Its operating system, linked suite of applications and modem for connection to a central server were also precursors to modern home computing.
The Compass Computer was strong, light and portable. So much so, that it was sent on the Space Shuttle for use by astronauts in orbit. Its unique geometry contained more than 40 individual patent licenses which earned GRiD Systems more than $7 million in income.
But the impact for Moggridge lay not in the physical design achievements, but in the way that the user interacted with the hardware and software. A fascination with the interface between the software and its users led Moggridge to develop and pioneer the discipline of interaction design. He later co-founded the hugely successful Ideo consultancy which has worked in the field of interaction and user-centred design since 1991.
Listen to Bill Moggridge interviewed by Debbie Millman. He discusses, the evolution, design and life to come of the laptop, the 20 year arch of technology, the meaning of human-centered design and his plans for future work at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.