Joe is a nationally known industrial designer and former senior faculty member in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. As the head of the school, he was instrumental in orienting CMU’s design programs toward the integration of high technology with traditional graphic and industrial design. Throughout his career, he has been concerned that people have satisfying, aesthetically pleasing experiences with technology, especially as it influences ever more of our everyday lives. His degrees are an M.F.A. in design from Carnegie Mellon University in addition to a B.S. in industrial management from Carnegie Institute of Technology, and a B.F.A. in industrial design from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America.
MAYA co-founder and principal Joseph Ballay designs human-centered products, environments, and interfaces.
At MAYA, Joe was one of the principal developers of Workscape, an interface metaphor for a software product that collects, stores, retrieves, and works with large numbers of diverse documents. He has also helped to guide the design of products in the domains of consumer electronics, interactive television, military logistics, fire protection, and computer peripherals. In 2012, Joe and co-authors Pete Lucas and Mickey McManus published Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology (Wiley). Trillions explores the emerging value at the intersection of design, technology, and business at the dawn of the pervasive computing age. It is designed to help us thrive in a world where trillions of computing devices will create extraordinary opportunities—in business, technology, and quality of life—and significant challenges.
Recently, Joe and his wife Sue founded the Ballay Family Fund through the Pittsburgh Foundation to advance innovation in education at all levels.