In through the Side Door

Book excerpt: The vital story of how women designers and researchers pioneered the field of interaction and user experience design for software and digital interfaces. Framed against the backdrop of contemporary waves of feminism and the history of computing design, In through the Side Door foregrounds the stories of the women working in the field of computing and the emergent discipline of interaction design as the graphical user interface was developed. Erin Malone begins with a handful of pioneers who brought to the field various methods from a variety of backgrounds including design, technical communication, social psychology, ethnography, information science, and mechanical engineering. Moving into the early days of desktop computing, the book highlights the women on the teams inventing contemporary desktop computer interfaces and related tools, including those at Xerox PARC, Apple’s Human Interface Group, and Microsoft. Malone takes the reader through the invention of the World Wide Web, the third wave of feminism, and the dot-com boom and bust. Coming up to contemporary times, the book features women working on the web, designing equipment interfaces, and working in voice UX, mobile design, and civic design, and continues with the up-and-coming leaders driving social impact, changing human-centered design and research, and working to be accountable for the harms of contemporary software products. Along the way, the author also touches on the challenges and biases women have faced in the workplace and continue to encounter despite cultural and sociological advancements.