The world we live in today is the result of the accumulation of the imagination of many inventors and thinkers. Among them, two women, Ada Lovelace and Lillian Gilbreath, lived in different times, but were pioneers in common who drew a “new relationship between humans and technology.”
Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace was born in 1815 in England, who became the world’s first programmer. She was not just a mathematician, but a person who imagined how machines could affect human life and art.
The interpreter designed by Charles Babbage was at the time regarded as just a quick calculator. Lovelace, however, was different. She saw that the machine could make music, manipulate symbols, and even simulate human thought. Her notebook she left in 1843 contained the concepts of today’s algorithms, which are recorded as “the world’s first programs.”
Although the machine was not completed in the end, Lovelace’s imagination became the reality of computer science decades later and became the basis for today’s software and interaction design.
Lillian Gilbreath
In the U.S, another woman was changing the future of technology. Lillian Gilbreath was an industrial engineer and psychologist, who is now called the mother of modern ergonomics. She did not stop at simply increasing efficiency, but researched designs that take into account a person’s physical and psychological conditions.
Gilbreath came up with the concept of a kitchen work triangle by applying ergonomics to kitchen design and came up with everyday inventions such as a trash can that opens with the foot and a refrigerator door shelf. It also proved that the design is for everyone, not just specific groups, while considering an environment where women, the disabled, and the elderly can work more conveniently.
Her research became the basis of human factors and human-centered design today, and showed that interaction design should be for people, not just technical logic.