Mentors & Motivators is a series of blog posts interviewing some women who are accomplishing some amazing things with the hope that their stories will encourage, inspire, and motivate you in your career, business, or personal life.
Meet Brenda Laurel. Brenda is a designer, researcher, teacher and writer.
Follow your passion. We can all do work that our heart’s not in, but finding something that you’re really passionate about – the end, if not the means – is a key to happiness. ~Brenda Laurel
You have quite a history! Can you tell us about your background?
You can get this from my bio… I was a theatre PhD student when I got lured into the little baby interactive media space in 1976, doing interactive fairy tales. Basically, that changed everything, including my PhD. I worked for Atari, then Atari Labs where things really got interesting and I got involved with HCI. I moved through many companies, working on games and HCI research. I published my first real book, Computers as Theatre, in 1990. In 1993, my work in VR culminated in a project called Placeholder. You can find this stuff on my website. My gender research at Interval in 1993-95 led to the founding of Purple Moon in 1996, one of the first companies of the “girl games” movement. After Purple Moon I turned to higher education and founded the grad Media Design Program at Art Center and then the Grad Design Program (transdisciplinary) at California College of the Arts in 2006, where I am still chair. I also wrote a more books and articles, and I do a fair amount of public speaking.
What is it about human-computer interaction that you most enjoy, or find most rewarding?
When we do something in interaction design strengthens our emotional or spiritual bond to the natural world. Placeholder was most exciting in this regard. More recently, I’ve been captivated by sensor networks coupled with various interface modalities.
What’s your favorite milestone in your career or business?
I guess that would be the magical year of being a parttime VR superhero because I got to hang out with so many interesting people – William Gibson, Timothy Leary, Bruce Sterling, etc.
What major obstacle/barrier/conflict have you faced and how did you overcome it?
My major obstacle was probably not being enough of a hard-core scientist or engineer, and I don’t think I have overcome it. I compensate for it, by reading and studying, and by partnering with scientist and engineers as a designer or critical theorist.
I was surprised to find that there are real brain-based differences, statistically speaking, between women and men in a few key areas including navigation, mental rotation and ways of establishing one’s place in a social network
You have done a lot of research in gender and technology, focusing on girls between ages 8-12. What were some of the major findings? What are some findings that you found that really surprised you?
I was surprised to find that there are real brain-based differences, statistically speaking, between women and men in a few key areas including navigation, mental rotation and ways of establishing one’s place in a social network (the same social behaviors can be observed in non-human primates). I learned that females tend to have very little patience for steep learning curves unless there is a really good reason to climb them, and that males tend to value mastery for its own sake whereas females tend to value mastery in terms of what it can allow them to produce or do in the world. These are generalizations based on statistics, and it’s important to remember that on just about any variable, individuals at either end of the bell curve are more different from one another than the “average” individuals of the two sexes.
What advice can you give someone who is building software, communities, applications targeted to young girls?
To put it bluntly, strive to meet girls where they are – and that means, you need to do your homework. Gender roles are changing all the time. Just look at the changes we’ve seen in your lifetime, let alone mine! And remember – you want “high positives” from the girls themselves, and merely “low negatives” from their parents. And that the opinions of male NY Times reviewers are a poor metric.
Sure, we [women & girls] are fascinated with patterns and mastery. But I believe that knowing how one might apply CS skills will be very motivational for many who might not otherwise have taken up the challenge.
There are numerous studies about the lack of women in technology. In your opinion, are there any changes that we can implement in our school systems to encourage more girls to embrace technology?
Most certainly. The changes have to do with that end goal – what can I do with this if I learn it? What is this good for? Sure, we are fascinated with patterns and mastery. But I believe that knowing how one might apply CS skills will be very motivational for many who might not otherwise have taken up the challenge.
What is the latest, greatest technology that helped you make a quantum leap in your work?
Distributed sensor networks paired with augmented reality displays.
A sensor network is typically composed of an array of small devices with sensors attached to them – these may be measuring things like temperature, humidity, or motion, or they may even have cameras or other imaging devices. Each sensor device is typically a little computer in its own right, with simple programming that sets up local rules about how that sensor communicates with others in its network. Effectively, this can turn a “point” of view into a “field” of view. Augmented reality overlays (viewed through head-mounted displays) can give a person either an overlay of the output from a single sensor, or a view of the output from several sensors in a field of view as one scans with one’s gaze. People who study computer vision are working on the many hairy problems involved with turning that field of points into a continuous landscape of information. Figuring out how to make smart interpolations about what is between the sensors is a key problem there, but one that will eventually be solved. I’m especially interested in how this technology can help us to “see the unseen” in the natural world. A good exemplary project is called the Electronic Field Guide, which was developed in a collaboration between Columbia, the Smithsonian, and the University of Maryland. My friend Sean White worked on this project – both on the augmented reality interface and on a program that visually identifies plant species (this now runs on an iPhone). Learn more about the project.
What are the qualities & characteristics that a professional woman needs to succeed in today’s fast paced world of technology?
Curiosity. Patience. Ability to keep many plates in the air at once. Unflappability. Inner peace. A life to come home to that is not work.
What sage words of advice (words of wisdom) can you offer to other professional women to help them achieve their own success?
I firmly believe in getting the best possible grounding in a Liberal Arts education, and don’t short-cut math and science. In the professional world, we are great translators. Being able to help engineers and artists, developers and marketers understand that they are on the same team is a great skill to cultivate. Finally, and most important, follow your passion. We can all do work that our heart’s not in, but finding something that you’re really passionate about – the end, if not the means – is a key to happiness. That’s success in my book.
