Hugh Dubberly, President of Dubberly Design and former Vice President of Design at Netscape, sheds light on what he considers to be one of today’s biggest problems—managing systems change. Hugh discusses this problem by answering several important questions including: What does it mean to broaden the focus of design to include relationships? And how might we integrate a systems perspective into design practice?

Hugh is a design planner and teacher. At Apple Computer in the late 80s and early 90s, Hugh managed cross-functional design teams and later managed creative services for the entire company. While at Apple, he co-created a technology-forecast film called “Knowledge Navigator,” that presaged the appearance of the Internet in a portable digital device. While at Apple, he served at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena as the first and founding chairman of the computer graphics department.

Intrigued by what the publishing industry would look like on the Internet, he next became Director of Interface Design for Times Mirror. This led him to Netscape where he became Vice President of Design and managed groups responsible for the design, engineering, and production of Netscape’s Web portal. Hugh graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in graphic design and earned an MFA in graphic design from Yale.