In through the Side Door: Fifty Years of Women in Interaction Design

The vital story of how women designers and researchers pioneered the field of interaction and user experience design for software and digital interfaces. 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.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Women, Work, and Technology
Aynne Valencia
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: 1960s—1980s: The Earliest Pioneers
1   Interaction Design’s Evolution from Computer Programming
Part II: 1980–1993: Personal Computing
2   The New Graphical User Interface
3   Beyond the Desktop
4   Supporting the Emerging Interaction Designer
Part III: 1993–2005: The Internet Changes Everything
5   BBSs, the Web, and the Dot Com Boom
6   Finding Community and Education
Part IV: 2005–2012: The Rise of Web 2.0
7   After the Bust
8   The Growing World of Devices
9   They Broke the Glass Ceiling
10   Focused Communities and Education
11   Conclusion
Appendix I: Interviews and Correspondence Conducted by the Author
Appendix II: Acronyms

About the Author :
Erin Malone is Professor and Chair of the Interaction Design BFA program at California College of the Arts. She is coauthor of Designing Social Interfaces and also spearheaded the ADL Social Pattern Library.

Review :
“Erin Malone has written a comprehensive account of women’s entry into the field of interaction design. She demonstrates that female designers have largely defined the discipline as it is practiced today.”
—Barry Katz, Professor Emeritus, California College of the Arts; author of Make It New

“In through the Side Door is a deftly written history of computing that centers the advances women have made that make our current technological landscape possible. A must-read for anyone interested in computing or interaction design.”
—Mar Hicks, Associate Professor of Data Science, University of Virginia; author of Programmed Inequality

“We are lucky to have Malone’s compelling and impeccably researched book that highlights what was in plain sight but has never gotten its due: the web of women who made interaction design.”
—Molly Wright Steenson, CEO and President, American Swedish Institute; author of Architectural Intelligence; coeditor, Bauhaus Futures