source: https://cattsmall.com/about/#bios
In today’s society, many designers are working hard for the underrepresented group, and Catt small is one of the designers that can not be ignored. She is a product/interaction designer and game developer. Catt began to code websites and games at the age of 10. Now she has 20 years of programming and design experience, at a young age.
Growing up in New York, Catt has degrees from the School of Visual Arts and New York University. She now works as an interaction designer at Asana and has worked for Soundcloud, Etsy and other companies. She is also the co-founder of the game studio Brooklyn Gamery and of the women’s video gaming association Code Liberation.
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eHIHrM8TF4
Catt is very proud of her persistence in the game industry. “I think that being a woman in gaming now is really great,” she said: “There was a time period where I felt really terrified but I feel like I have the privilege of being a lifelong gamer and being able to drop niche games out of nowhere. Being a woman in gaming, I can also bring other women into gaming and bring them to game jams.” In her speech, she explained to the audience the gender imbalance in the gaming industry. Only 7% of game developers are women, which makes her uneasy because she loves the industry. As a result, she promotes and encourages female gamers through many games and other design projects.
link: https://cattsmall.itch.io/sweetxheart
In addition to gender, her works also contain her reflections on social issues such as race, psychology and sex education. For example, in her game SweetXheart, players will play the role of a 19-year-old black girl named Kara and experience her life. Every subtle choice will affect Kara’s life satisfaction. In this game, Catt skillfully shows the problems of sexual harassment, which is what she has been doing, and wanted society to see it.
Even if there are many injustices in this society, designers should learn from Catt’s spirits and advocate the power of underrepresented people.
Reference:
The Catt Suite, 2020, https://cattsmall.com/
SweetXheart by Catt Small, 2019, itch.io, https://cattsmall.itch.io/sweetxheart
Maurice Cherry, Episode 203: Catt Small, 2017, revision path, https://revisionpath.com/catt-small/
Tyler Woods, Keeping up with Catt Small, 2015, technical.ly, https://technical.ly/brooklyn/2015/10/13/keeping-catt-small/
TEDx Talks, Changing the face of game development | Catt Small | TEDxFoggyBottom, 2015, Youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eHIHrM8TF4
Love your idea! “Even if there are many injustices in this society, designers should learn from Catt’s spirits and advocate the power of underrepresented people.” Thank you for your sharing and let me learn about this great woman.
Jasmine – your links are all messed up and go to references about Lynn Yun. Can you go in and edit them to be the correct links.
Revised! Thank you for noticing me. I remember changing the links but I don’t know why they went to the previous sites.