Bill Moggridge is the co-founder of design firm IDEO and the current director of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. He designed the first laptop computer: the GRiD Compass. An influencial design guru and an advocate for user-centered design process in product development and also responsible for popularizing the art of interaction design as a mainstream discipline. Regardless of whether designers consider Bill's work a direct influence or not, he has shaped the industry with his passion for design.

German industrial designer and former chief of design for Braun, Dieter Rams, has been a significant influence on my work. His "Ten Principles for Good Design" have challenged every designer, whether interaction or industrial to consider aethetics, environment, usefulness, obtrusiveness, honesty - the essential qualities of a product. Rams once explained his design approach in the phrase "Weniger, aber besser" which translates as "Less, but better". Rams is credited with being a significant influence on Jonathan Ive, SVP of Industrial Design for Apple Inc. and countless others.