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Core was impressed by Compaq's recently released
"Dual Worlds" concept prototype and contacted their Director of
Design, Randall Martin, for an "e"-nterview. He provided
numerous insights on his own background and that of the design
group at Compaq, in addition to a few notable examples of successful
projects that came out of that group.
C77: Can you tell us a little about your background?
RM: I graduated in 1981 from Auburn University in Alabama
with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design. Upon graduation
I was promptly hired by IBM Corporation for an entry-level position
in their newly formed Personal Computer group in Boca Raton, Florida.
Over the next seven years I traveled the world working
with numerous partners and IBM locations in the design of personal
computers and accessories. The highlight of my IBM career was
receiving the "Best in Category" IDEA Gold award from IDSA for
the Design of the IBM 7575 Robotic Assembly Arm. That product
went on to win awards from ID magazine, and finally the Industrie
Forum at the Hannover Trade Fair in Germany. I remained at IBM
until the fall of 1988 when I accepted a position with Compaq
Computer Corporation in Houston, Texas.
While at Compaq I have held numerous staff design
and management positions within their internal design organizations
and personally hold 30 international and domestic patents for
computer design. Currently, I am director of the Access Business
Group Design Center within Compaq.
C77: What is the Access Business Group Design Center?
RM: Compaq has several internal design groups that reside
in each particular business group they serve. There are two enterprise
design groups that support the large server and high end computing
platforms. There is also a portable design group that designs
the Compaq laptop PC products. Finally, there is the Access Design
Group. We are responsible for the design of the majority of Compaq's
PC products, including the EVO line of PC's, as well as the iPAQ
Pocket-PC and home networking and audio products. While the design
groups have different management reporting structures, we manage
the common design elements through the "Strategic Design Council,"
which is comprised of the leaders of the various design groups.
We meet on a regular basis to discuss the design issues and insure
consistency of our design languages.
Today the Access Design Center team is comprised
of eight designers/managers as well as two dedicated model makers.
The members of our team come from a variety of backgrounds, with
an average 10 years of previous experience each in the design
of consumer electronics.
Over the last few years Compaq has undergone numerous
reorganizations in order to streamline our development process,
and to keep pace with the ever changing IT environment and customer
requirements. During one such reorganization we made a decision
to divide our design team into two distinct areas of focus; tactical and strategic design. As the name implies the
tactical design team is responsible for the continued evolution
and delivery of the various product lines within the access PC
group. Similarly, the Strategic Design team provides a catalyst
for innovation within the development teams. Based on our team's
years of design experience, we realized that we needed a vehicle
for conceptual exploration to break out of the box and drive innovation
into our product development process. The strategic design team
gives us that vehicle.
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