Dean Hovey was one of the co-founders of Hovey-Kelley Design, the firm that did much of the design work on the mouse that was used in the Lisa and Macintosh (and later became the standard mechanical and electrical design for mice produced the world over). Like other members of Hovey-Kelley (and others involved in Apple design projects, like Jerry Manock and Bill Dresselhaus), Dean Hovey graduated from the Stanford University Product Design Program. After receiving his M.A. from Stanford, he and David Kelley founded Hovey-Kelley. The company was introduced to Apple through Jerry Manock.
In early 1980, Dean Hovey met with Steve Jobs to pitch several products his company was interested in developing for Apple. Jobs countered with a proposal to have Hovey-Kelley develop a mouse for the Lisa. Hovey oversaw work within the firm on the mouse, and was the principal liaison between Hovey-Kelley and Apple.
After leaving Hovey-Kelley, he founded Trace Systems, worked as venture capitalist, and is now a vice president at Pensare, and online education software company.
The interview was conducted by Alex Pang on 22 June 2000, in Hovey's office at Pensare, in Los Altos. The interview was transcribed and edited by Alex Pang, and reviewed by Dean Hovey.
The original recording (a cassette tape, with an interview of Larry Tesler on side B) has been deposited with Stanford University Library's Department of Special Collections.
The transcript has been broken up into several pages, each of which deals with a particular subject. A full transcript is also available that contains the same content, but presents it on a single page.