Joy Mountford

Brian Zhao

Erin Malone

IXD History

October 26, 2020

Joy Mountford

Joy Mountford is one of the top designers who works in the human-computer interaction field. She is not just known as the leader of the user experience team of Ford Motor Co., she also makes many significant contributions in other territories. 

Joy Mountford did not reveal too much about her early life. The only few things we know are that her nationality is the United Kingdom and she went to University College London and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The first job that Mountford applied for was the position of human-computer interaction designer at Honeywell. Mountford gained 7-year work experience and she moved to Microelectronics Computer Consortium (MCC)for a 2-year project. Mountford then joined Apple’s human-interface group after she left MCC. Mountford’s team was developing the user interface of the desktop applications and she played the important role of managing her team at the time. Many years later, her team came up with the remarkable QuickTime media player application and they helped develop the tangible computing system. Mountford’s leadership had once more proved by her achievement, and she continued to work in different places as a director or supervisor after she left Apple. In 2012, Mountford won the lifetime contributions to the human-computer interaction award; she was admitted to be the top expert in the human-computer interaction field.

Mountford also owned more than 20 patents over the years. Her innovations and works had benefited products like toys, audio players, computers, mobile devices, and even aircraft. Mountford didn’t just have contributions in the human-computer interaction field, she also devoted a lot on educating the next generation. Mountford is also the founder of Design Expo which is a yearly contest that encourages young designers to display their works and be more creative and thoughtful on their future projects. 

Right now, Mountford is still working hard on studying how live data should display on electronic devices and she is also working for Ford Motor Co. at the Research Innovation Center as the global lead. 

Citation

• Mountford, Joy. “Joy Mountford Intro.” Linkedin, www.linkedin.com/in/joymountford. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.
• “Joy Mountford.” Exploratorium, 17 Nov. 2014, www.exploratorium.edu/collaborations/oshers/joy-mountford. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.
• “S. Joy Mountford: Voice of the Car.” NYU TISCH, 2019, tisch.nyu.edu/itp/events/spring-2019/s–joy-mountford-talk. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.