Barbie can (not) be a Computer Engineer.

[MyNameIsKir]

My facebook has been blowing up with posts about misogyny in the tech world, but sometimes that misogyny isn't coming from Uber or similar startups.

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/barbie-engineer-book-girls-game-developers/

To quickly summarize, a Barbie book was produced in which Barbie proves herself incompetent with computers and has the men do all the work for her while she takes credit.

I'm curious to see what the C&T's opinions on this are. Personally, I'm really disappointed because I like to wear pink, look sexy, and when I am a terrible person and "use men" to help me code it's me claiming that we're pair programming while I'm really just having them watch me code so that they can catch my syntax errors (such as forgetting a semicolon or misspelling a variable name). Why can't Barbie be like that?

[Lanackse-Kanvae]

OK I may be "just a designer" but designers do need to be aware of technology (how else will you get the most out of your designs if you don't know what their native platform is going to be?) as well as the "fluffy" design process.

I would dearly love to see a coder do the designer's job. It might give them an appreciation of how many disciplines, how many skills, and how much thought and work go into making the design. Also the "getting the requirements from the user part" would be fun to see coders (stereotypically infamous for not brilliant people skills) handle.

Barbie's taking credit for all the work wounds like so many bosses in the world. Bad example to be setting kids.

TL;DR - whoever was involved with this pile of s**t needs to present their arses to me for a kicking with my DMs.

[-=[Lord.Necros]=-]

My first thought is this is a Barbie book. A misogynistic character behaving in a misogynistic fashion? Oh my.

My second thought is the review reviles Barbie's role as a designer, not a programmer, and I only have a problem with that because the title specifically includes "Computer Engineer". If it had been "Games Developer", I wouldn't care that Barbie isn't a programmer.

My third thought is that Skipper's reaction to receiving a virus is misinterpreted. She's not focused on a pillow fight. She's a pretender, fulfilling the expectation of a happy, friendly girl whilst barely concealing her murderous intent as she secretly plots ripping the flesh from her pretty sister's face.

[Scriptkitten]

*sigh* gawd.

Just...

Why...

I have no words.
This book was clearly written by a man. :

[WWLink]

Lanackse-Kanvae

OK I may be "just a designer" but designers do need to be aware of technology (how else will you get the most out of your designs if you don't know what their native platform is going to be?) as well as the "fluffy" design process.

Designers that can code are usually referred to as unicorns.

[Sitwon]

Lanackse-Kanvae

I would dearly love to see a coder do the designer's job. It might give them an appreciation of how many disciplines, how many skills, and how much thought and work go into making the design. Also the "getting the requirements from the user part" would be fun to see coders (stereotypically infamous for not brilliant people skills) handle.

Speaking as a coder (primarily) who studies a lot of design. A lot of designers are full of crap and just plain suck at their trade. They try to pass it off as artistic license and whine about being misunderstood or under-appreciated, but the reality is people don't like their work because they're missing the actual target.

Sure, there are some true masters out there, but most designers I've met have more ego than skill. I can count on one hand the truly skillful designers I've worked with.

And if you don't want to be stereotyped as a designer, don't stereotype coders. Painting coders as being siloed into one discipline or having poor people skills is no better than painting women as having poor tech skills.

[WWLink]

Good design is a great thing. It's also pretty rare lol.

Most people's idea of sexy design falls into 1 of 2 schools:

thesiteswithnameslikethis

they have giant header images, broken javascript "ajax" that doesn't let you use the back button, and have more animations than a flash monstrosity from 10 years ago.

and the anti-site.

Created by the hipster. The writing was probably typed up on a vintage typewriter inside a starbucks. They insisted on using a serif font, because Helvetica is evil, yo.

There. Generalized
**RUNS*

[Lanackse-Kanvae]

Sitwon

Lanackse-Kanvae

I would dearly love to see a coder do the designer's job. It might give them an appreciation of how many disciplines, how many skills, and how much thought and work go into making the design. Also the "getting the requirements from the user part" would be fun to see coders (stereotypically infamous for not brilliant people skills) handle.

Speaking as a coder (primarily) who studies a lot of design. A lot of designers are full of crap and just plain suck at their trade. They try to pass it off as artistic license and whine about being misunderstood or under-appreciated, but the reality is people don't like their work because they're missing the actual target.

Sure, there are some true masters out there, but most designers I've met have more ego than skill. I can count on one hand the truly skillful designers I've worked with.

And if you don't want to be stereotyped as a designer, don't stereotype coders. Painting coders as being siloed into one discipline or having poor people skills is no better than painting women as having poor tech skills.

Hence why I said stereotypically have bad people skills. I know some coders that have great people skills. What you've said about designers can apply to any field in IT and I think we can both agree that is just a massive piss take and needs to be tackled.

I respect coders (in fact one of my best friends is a coder and he's one of the few people I would fight through the legions of Hell to save whilst hoping that he saves some for me) because they have their skillset and I have done some coding (I did OK but nothing especially brilliant) so I know that it's not for everyone.

It just annoys me when people (sorry but management and coders tend to be the worst offenders) immediately go "oh you're just the designer why should I listen to you? Anyone can do your job" It really makes me want to take a 3D array and smack them with it.

[The20]

Lanackse-Kanvae

I would dearly love to see a coder do the designer's job. It might give them an appreciation of how many disciplines, how many skills, and how much thought and work go into making the design. Also the "getting the requirements from the user part" would be fun to see coders (stereotypically infamous for not brilliant people skills) handle.

By designer do you speak of visual things, like user interfaces? I can do that. The results will be practical more than pretty, but that's the point, isn't it? I had a few very, very basic lessons regarding the subject.

As for Barbie ... it's Barbie. Having no expectations would still be too optimistic.

[MyNameIsKir]

Scriptkitten

*sigh* gawd.

Just...

Why...

I have no words.
This book was clearly written by a man. :

I dunno, I was pretty misogynistic back in high school.

Edit: Yep, written by a chick.
http://consumerist.com/2014/11/19/mattel-apologizes-says-incompetent-engineer-barbie-doesnt-reflect-the-brands-vision/

Edit: My favorite rewrite so far:

#storyofmylife

[Sitwon]

OOP is dead, it's all about FP now.

[MyNameIsKir]

Sitwon

OOP is dead, it's all about FP now.

Both has its place. I'm not a fan of those who worship one or the other. They've got specific uses.


I made my own. Story of my life.

[Lanackse-Kanvae]

The20

Lanackse-Kanvae

I would dearly love to see a coder do the designer's job. It might give them an appreciation of how many disciplines, how many skills, and how much thought and work go into making the design. Also the "getting the requirements from the user part" would be fun to see coders (stereotypically infamous for not brilliant people skills) handle.

By designer do you speak of visual things, like user interfaces? I can do that. The results will be practical more than pretty, but that's the point, isn't it? I had a few very, very basic lessons regarding the subject.

As for Barbie ... it's Barbie. Having no expectations would still be too optimistic.

It's not just the interface to take into consideration, it's also the bits that users don't see. No point having a nice interface if the stuff behind it is a steaming fresh pile of s**t. Also I tend to follow the Jakob Nielsen school of design which generally goes for simplicity over bells and whistles.

[The20]

Lanackse-Kanvae

The20

Lanackse-Kanvae

I would dearly love to see a coder do the designer's job. It might give them an appreciation of how many disciplines, how many skills, and how much thought and work go into making the design. Also the "getting the requirements from the user part" would be fun to see coders (stereotypically infamous for not brilliant people skills) handle.

By designer do you speak of visual things, like user interfaces? I can do that. The results will be practical more than pretty, but that's the point, isn't it? I had a few very, very basic lessons regarding the subject.

As for Barbie ... it's Barbie. Having no expectations would still be too optimistic.

It's not just the interface to take into consideration, it's also the bits that users don't see. No point having a nice interface if the stuff behind it is a steaming fresh pile of s**t. Also I tend to follow the Jakob Nielsen school of design which generally goes for simplicity over bells and whistles.

Ah, you mean software design?

[Lanackse-Kanvae]

The20

Lanackse-Kanvae

The20

Lanackse-Kanvae

I would dearly love to see a coder do the designer's job. It might give them an appreciation of how many disciplines, how many skills, and how much thought and work go into making the design. Also the "getting the requirements from the user part" would be fun to see coders (stereotypically infamous for not brilliant people skills) handle.

By designer do you speak of visual things, like user interfaces? I can do that. The results will be practical more than pretty, but that's the point, isn't it? I had a few very, very basic lessons regarding the subject.

As for Barbie ... it's Barbie. Having no expectations would still be too optimistic.

It's not just the interface to take into consideration, it's also the bits that users don't see. No point having a nice interface if the stuff behind it is a steaming fresh pile of s**t. Also I tend to follow the Jakob Nielsen school of design which generally goes for simplicity over bells and whistles.

Ah, you mean software design?

Software, interactive products, etc. all have the same underlying design principles (they also have the same constraints of time and budget) it's just that the end product is going to be different in each case.