About
Robert Fabricant is a systems designer who has worked at the forefront of technology and user experience design for more than 25 years. His work has spanned everything from interactive environments and virtual worlds, to medical devices, in car navigation systems, smart infrastructure, fintech, medical devices and consumer apps for organizations as varied as MTV, Daimler Chrysler, General Electric and UNICEF. Robert designed his first mobile and tablet apps more than a decade before the release of the iPhone and iPad. His work has appeared on billboards in Times Square and feature phones throughout East Africa.
These days Robert co-leads the global design team at Dalberg Design with studios in Dakar, Mexico City, Mumbai, Nairobi and New York. Dalberg Design works with foundations, public sector and civil society organizations to address global issues related to health, financial inclusion, education and sustainability. Over the last five years, his team at Dalberg has applied human centered design and systems thinking to address challenges in low-resource settings in more than 50 countries and throughout the USA. Dalberg Design served as the lead research and design partner to Safaricom, a leading mobile operator, for the launch of a mobile service that reaches more than two million farmers with market information and was honored by Fast Company as a World Changing Idea.
Prior to founding the global design practice at Dalberg, Robert served as the Vice President of Creative for frog design where he built practices in interaction design, design research and experience strategy for a team of more than 250 designers. Robert also incubated and led frog Impact working with key partners like UNICEF and the GE Foundation to leverage the power of design and technology to accelerate positive behavior change. Early in his career he worked at Microsoft Research to help design and launch online virtual worlds, 3D chat environments and conduct early research into user behavior in the nascent metaverse.
Robert has an MPS in Design and Technology from NYU and writes and speaks extensively about design and social impact for Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Wired, MIT Innovations, Fast Company and other leading publications. Robert holds multiple patents related to digital media and information technology. A four time nominee for the Smithsonian / Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards in digital design, his work has been recognized by Fast Company, Core77 and IDSA and he has been named one of the top 100 public interest designers working globally. He serves on the board of Reach Health a leading tech company in South Africa that develops population scale mobile messaging and behavior change services that reach more than 100 million people in 65 countries with critical, life-saving information. He is a co-author of the book User Friendly with journalist / designer Cliff Kuang that tells the origin story of user experience design and how it is fundamentally reshaping the way we live, work and play. User Friendly was selected by Amazon as one of the top 100 books of 2019.