Matías Duarte is a Chilean-American computer interface designer and

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

's Vice President of Design. Prior to his current role, he was the Director of Android

User Experience User experience (UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency. Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers, a ...

. Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" was the first release with major elements of his design influence. Prior to moving to Google to work on Android, Duarte had similar roles in Palm, Inc.’s

webOS webOS, also known as LG webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices, such as smart TVs, that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially developed by Palm, Inc. (which was acquired by Hewlett ...

, the Helio Ocean and the Danger Hiptop (T-Mobile Sidekick).

Career

Duarte started his career at Psycroft where he cowrote

xBill ''XBill'' is an arcade style game for the X Window System. The game features a bespectacled character known as "Bill" (a spoof of Bill Gates). The goal is to prevent Bill's legions of clones from installing "Wingdows", a virus "cleverly designe ...

with Brian Wellington. He left Psycroft in 1996 at which time he moved to Hyper Image Productions where he was the lead designer on '' Phase Zero'', an unreleased

shooter game Shooter video games, or shooters, are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is on the defeat of the character's enemies using ranged weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, a ...

for the

Atari Jaguar The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. It is in the fifth generation of video game consoles, and it competed with Fourth generation of video game consoles, fo ...

. In 1997 he left Hyper Image Productions and moved to MagicArts where he filled the role of Vice President of Design until 1999. In March 2000 Duarte took a role at

Danger Danger is a lack of safety and may refer Places * Danger Cave, an archaeological site in Utah * Danger Island, Great Chagos Bank, Indian Ocean * Danger Island, alternate name of Pukapuka Atoll in the Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean * Danger Island ...

as the Director of Design where his team won the 2002 Wired 'Industrial Designer' Rave Award for their work in designing the Hiptop/SideKick. In August 2005 he took up a role at Helio, as Vice President Experience Design and left shortly before the company was acquired by

Virgin Mobile Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by seven independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Mobile branded wireless communications services are available in Ireland, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emi ...

. In September 2007 Duarte was hired as the Vice President at Palm, Inc. to lead development of Palm’s

Human Interface and User Experience and introduced the design of webOS at the 2009

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

. In May 2010 Duarte was hired by

as Director for the Android User Experience working on the interface and design for Android 3.0 (AKA Honeycomb).Engadget
Exclusive interview: Google's Matias Duarte talks Honeycomb, tablets, and the future of Android
7 January 2011.

Award

* 2002 Wired Rave Award, Industrial Designer of the Year "to Matias Duarte, Joe Palmer, and Andy Johnston for their work in designing Danger's hiptop communications device."

Education

Duarte graduated from the Science, Mathematics and Computer Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland. He earned a Bachelor of Science with Honors from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

with a B.S. in Computer Science. He took on additional concentrations of study in Fine Art and Art History, and managed the Student Art Gallery from 1993 to 1996 at the

Personal life

Duarte is married, and had a daughter in June 2008, another one in 2010.

References

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duarte, Matias 1973 births Living people People from Talca Chilean emigrants to the United States University of Maryland, College Park alumni Businesspeople in software American computer businesspeople Chilean businesspeople Chilean computer scientists Google employees Android (operating system) 21st-century American inventors