Ada Lovelace and Lillian Gilbreth are important in the history of IXD, because they laid the groundwork for technology and user experience.
Lovelace is considered to be the first computer programmer, and her work showed how machines could go beyond simple computation, paving the way for logical and algorithmic thinking in modern interaction design. Although her family wouldn’t let her study computers, she kept what she loved despite the obstacles.
Gilbreth was a pioneer in human factors engineering, one of the people who considered user needs and constraints when designing systems, and whose research focused on how to optimize human-tool interactions, directly influencing the principles of user experience design.
Their ideas provided early inspiration for the core of IXD – the effective interaction between people and technology.