Women In Interaction Design – BONUS WRITING

Women always had a traditional gender role in our society since the beginning of time. From artists, writers to engineers and scientists, women’s work and achievement had consistently being overshadowed by men. In recent decades, two of the most important figures in interaction design, Lilian Gilbreth and Ada Lovelace were being acknowledged for what they have done for the world of science and design despite their family histories.

Lilian Gilbreth and Ada Lovelace shared many similarities regarding their fatherhood and how they were influenced by other pioneers in their own era.

Ada Lovelace’s father was a poet and to not follow her father’s path, Ada was encouraged by her supportive mother to follow the passion she had in mathematics. In her journey of pursuing science, she had encountered many great practitioners in her field, and one of them was Charles Babbage, whom she had worked with since she was 17 years old. As now we know Charles Babbage is the father of the computer, little did we know that Ada Lovelace laid the groundwork for the work of its computer programming. She wrote the world’s earliest algorithm for the ‘Analytical Engine’ and helped the computer to evolute to what we have today. Even with all of the work she has contributed and solved, you can still find her in some places as the “assistance of Charles Babbage”.

On the other hand, Lilian Gilbreth prevailed in her early education despite her father’s objection. After Gilbreth’s achievement in education, she pioneered industrial management techniques with her husband Frank Gilbreth who is the most important man in her life – Frank Gilbreth encouraged her to go further with her education in psychology. Lilian Gilbreth’s continuous achievement in her education ultimately changed our world today: she focused on the workplace’s efficiency such as general electric and kitchen appliances; she improved operating procedures and design equipments for the disables and homemakers. Her work is a preliminary to our design world, and all of these industrial designs represented what is called “user-centric” today.