David J Gilmore

Helping to improve user experiences through design

I have been working on innovation, product design, user experience, human factors and human-computer interaction for over 40 years..

In the mid-1990’s I led a team that demonstrated the need for something richer than usability … and we were working with Don Norman at Apple on this and related ideas and it was around this time that Don coined the term ‘User Experience’.

At IDEO I was part of the Human Factors leadership that revealed how contextual, empathic research could identify users’ implicit and latent needs in ways that designers could act upon.

Since IDEO I have worked at Intel, Logitech, GE Research and Elekta, leading developments in user experience across hardware and software, in consumer products and in complex industrial domains (for example, gas-fired power stations and radiation therapy). 

It is a lot more than User Interfaces

Contact Me

Solving Real Problems

What can I do for you?

More Services

Prototypes for early concept exploration

Are you building prototypes early enough? Do you assume that engineers should build your prototypes? Do you know how to build prototypes that help you explore your concepts before you commit to engineering development?

Authentic Conversations

Are you hearing authentic responses? Or are you hearing what your customers and users want you to hear, or what they think you want to hear?

Strategic UX or UX Strategy

Are you using your UX capability strategically? Or are they delivering great UI in places where it might or might not matter?

Some previous work

Learn more about my background

More Portfolio

The internet at home

In the 2000’s it was still very unclear what the role of the internet was at home, or how it would be accessed.
In the 2000’s it was still very unclear what the role of the internet was at home, or how it would be accessed.

Digital, Industrial Experiences

How does an iPad bring better experiences to a locomotive maintenance yard?
How does an iPad bring better experiences to a locomotive maintenance yard?

What is the digital experience of the human-machine interface?

HMI’s have been graphical for a long time, but they haven’t really been digital – what might their digital transformation mean?
HMI’s have been graphical for a long time, but they haven’t really been digital – what might their digital transformation mean?

Some publications

Read more of my past work and thinking

More Writings
21st Century HMI

The Human-Machine Interface (HMI) went graphical many years ago, but it never quite went fully digital, which makes bringing the enhancements of data analytics and AI to bear much harder. This poster summarises GE Research’s efforts to explore what a digital HMI might be like and how users would respond to it.

Radiotherapy's Future Experience

This paper describes how a suite of research techniques were used to inform the development of a vision for the future of radiotherapy that was to later become Elekta’s MRLinac Unity.

Assessing the design of a new HMI

As industrial plants (e.g. gas-fired power stations) become more and more digital the human-machine interface (HMI) is in danger of being left behind. These studies evaluate modern digital designs for power plant HMI.