National Design Museum

Of all the Smithsonian museums, perhaps our favorite to visit is the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. Unfortunately, it's not many others' favorite. The design museum is just about the least visited of all the Smithsonians, placing 17th out of 19. In fact, of the 30 million visitors to the museums last year, only 1/2 of 1 percent visited the design museum.

In an attempt to boost the museum's profile, the Smithsonian has appointed Bill Moggridge to the director's post. Besides bringing a career full of industry and interactive design experience to table, he's also a committed pedagogue of design's impact on our everyday lives. Making design relevant to the average person is not the easiest task, despite the evidence lying plain sight. Moggridge has certainly made his own contributions to this everyday realm. In fact, he designed the first version of what I'm typing on right now: the laptop computer.

Above: The GRiD Compass laptop, circa 1982