The importance of Ada Lovelace and Lillian Gilbreth in the course of Interaction Design history is valued not only in recognizing the unsung history of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math but also because of their influential contributions to what paved the way for the technologies we are so closely interconnected with today.
These two female figures’ story has been much underappreciated and unrecognized for all these years despite their pivotal impact to computer programming and engineering. In the STEM fields, the names that are recognized and celebrated are predominantly white male. By recognizing and learning about Ada Lovelace and Lillian Gilbreth, more present day women would be inspired and be hopeful about what impact they can bring to the STEM world and break the gender stereotypes because these early day women have already proved those stereotypes wrong!
Without learning the groundbreaking steps Lillian Gilbreth has made to improve efficiency in both government and military levels as well as at our day-today living level, we would never have the full insight into what task and workflow analysis is. Similarly, without knowing and learning about the work that Ada Lovelace did—the first person to write computer programs for Charles Babbage’s invention of what’s now considered as the first computer—the development of computing machines would’ve been much more difficult.