# Bill Verplank > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bill_Verplank > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bill_Verplank.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Verplank > Source revision: 1357274276 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **William Lawrence Verplank** is a designer and researcher who focuses on interactions between humans and computers. He is one of the pioneers of [interaction design](/source/Interaction_design), a field of design that focuses on users and technology, and a term he helped coin in the 1980s.[1][2] He was previously a visiting scholar at [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University)'s [CCRMA](/source/CCRMA) and was involved in Stanford's [d.school](/source/Hasso_Plattner_Institute_of_Design).[3] He also teaches and lectures internationally on interaction design. ## Career Bill Verplank received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University) in 1965.[4] Verplank then moved the same year to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to complete a [PhD](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy) by 1977 in man-machine systems and studied with [Thomas B. Sheridan](/source/Thomas_B._Sheridan).[5] He worked at [Xerox Parc](/source/PARC_(company)) and Office Systems Divisions from 1978-1986 refining the design of the original graphical user interface and mouse, in the [Xerox Star](/source/Xerox_Star). He went on to work with [Bill Moggridge](/source/Bill_Moggridge), first at IDtwo and then at [IDEO](/source/IDEO) (1986–1992), bringing graphical user interfaces to the world of product design. Together with Bill Moggridge, they coined the term [interaction design](/source/Interaction_design) in the mid-1980s.[2] From 1992-2000 at [Interval Research Corporation](/source/Interval_Research_Corporation), he directed the design and research for collaboration, tangibility and music.[6] When Interval Research closed in 2000, Verplank joined Stanford's University's CCRMA part-time with [Max Mathews](/source/Max_Mathews) and developed a course on HCI for computer music and a conference (spun off from CHI) called [NIME](/source/New_Interfaces_for_Musical_Expression) (New Interfaces for Musical Expression).[6] He was on the steering committee and taught at the [Interaction Design Institute Ivrea](/source/Interaction_Design_Institute_Ivrea) (2000–2005).[7] He is active in [SIGCHI](/source/SIGCHI), a special interest group which is focused on human–computer interactions (HCI) and he helped write their curricula for the SIGCHI Academy.[6] An interview with Verplank, featuring his signature sketching while talking, is included in the book *[Designing Interactions](/source/Designing_Interactions)* (published in October 2006), with the e-book and website of the same publication including a video of Verplank.[8] ## References 1. Quito, Anne (2015-06-01). ["Google's moronic portrayal of designers is no laughing matter — Quartz"](https://qz.com/415817/googles-moronic-portrayal-of-its-designers-is-no-laughing-matter/). *qz.com*. Retrieved 2018-10-26. History check: Material Design is essentially a facet of interaction design, a specialization concerned with the user’s behavior and well established since the 1980s by pioneers like Bill Moggridge and Bill Verplank. 1. Friesen, Jeff (2013-03-06). ["Design patterns, the big picture, Part 3: Beyond software design patterns"](https://www.javaworld.com/article/2071208/core-java/design-patterns--the-big-picture--part-3--beyond-software-design-patterns.html). *JavaWorld*. IDG Communications, Inc. Retrieved 2018-10-26. In the mid-1980s, human-computer interaction pioneers Bill Moggridge and Bill Verplank coined the term interaction design. 1. ["Bill Verplank"](https://ccrma.stanford.edu/people/bill-verplank). *CCRMA, Stanford University*. Retrieved 2018-10-26. 1. ["The Stanford Daily 12 May 1965 — The Stanford Daily"](https://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19650512-01.2.17). *stanforddailyarchive.com*. Retrieved 2018-10-28. 1. Hummels, Caroline. ["Bill Verplank | Engaging Encounters: sketching futures together"](https://web.archive.org/web/20181027061517/http://dqi.id.tue.nl/ee/inspirators/bill-verplank/). *dqi.id.tue.nl*. Archived from [the original](http://dqi.id.tue.nl/ee/inspirators/bill-verplank/) on 2018-10-27. Retrieved 2018-10-26. 1. ["2015 SIGCHI Awards"](https://web.archive.org/web/20180402101922/https://sigchi.org/awards/sigchi-award-recipients/2015-sigchi-awards/). *ACM SIGCHI*. Archived from [the original](https://sigchi.org/awards/sigchi-award-recipients/2015-sigchi-awards/) on 2018-04-02. Retrieved 2018-10-26. 1. [Bill Verplank home site](http://www.billverplank.com/professional.html) 1. Crampton Smith, Gillian & Moggridge, Bill (2006). ["Designing Interactions"](http://www.designinginteractions.com/interviews/BillVerplank). *www.designinginteractions.com*. Retrieved 2016-07-28. ## External links - Podcast: [The History of Interaction with Bill Verplank](https://uie.fm/shows/spoolcast/the-history-of-interaction-with-bill-verplank) on The SpoolCast (Episode #58, 2008) with [Jared Spool](/source/Jared_Spool) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bill Verplank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Verplank) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Verplank?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.