There is so much one can say (or write) about New York’s own, Catt Small (@CattSmall).
A cyber-dynamo who excels at UX Design and coding, Small helps to promote the importance of STEM, Web design, and gaming culture to the masses. Having started coding at the precocious age of 12, she upgraded her skill set and began designing sites at the age of 15.
A graduate of the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Graphic Design, the Jill-of-all-trades manages to do a lot in a little bit of time. When she isn’t leading talks with her Brooklyn Gamery and Code Liberation crew, you can find her making video games in her spare time alongside Buttered Toast Studios and organizing events for Tech Under Thirty.
BlackEnterprise.com caught up with the busy entrepreneurial tech wizard before she started her seven-week Web game development class to talk to her about her journey as a visual artist, her thoughts on black girls coding, and diversity in the gaming industry.
Black Enterprise: How did your interest in all things Web-centric (UX, Visual Design, and Development) began? Also, can you talk about how coding and scripting language affected your relationships with your peers in your neighborhood?
Catt Small: My interest in Web development began at a very young age. My parents encouraged me to work with computers as much as possible because they knew technology was going to change the world. Around the age of 12, I became a huge anime fan and shortly after learned about Otaku World, a pseudo-social network for people who enjoyed anime.
One of the features of Otaku World was a dress-up doll program. I learned the scripting language the program used and began to draw and program my own dolls. Once I had a few finished projects hosted on Otaku World, I wanted to make my own portfolio—the coolest dress-up doll artists had links to their websites, and I wanted to be as good as they were.
Despite being heavily embedded in technology, I still managed to have a pretty positive social life as a child. I went to elementary and middle schools for talented and gifted children in Harlem, so most of the people I hung around with were also nerdy and into games. I didn’t tell people about Otaku World or the fact that I could code, though, because I didn’t think it was worth sharing. Now I realize how special my childhood experience was.
At 15, your job at 3iYing had you doing work that, today, some adults can’t even fathom. What were some lifelong lessons you learned that you’ve applied to other projects?
Presentation is incredibly important. Doing the actual design work isn’t enough. Depending on how that work is presented, your work is either applauded or ignored. Spend time thinking about how to best present your work. Write an outline and practice several times if you can. Prepare for outlandish questions, because some people might try to catch you off-guard.
Do your research. If you have data to back your decisions, clients will know you’re trustworthy. We spent a lot of time talking to young women and recording their feedback for clients. Having the voices of laypeople to back our design decisions was crucial for getting clients to change their advertising and branding.
Keyboard shortcuts are wonderful. One of the other ladies at 3iYing gave me a 2-page printed list of Adobe Illustrator keyboard shortcuts. I went home and studied it, then began using them one by one. Now, I can’t live without them. Using keyboard shortcuts has made me so much more efficient.
The best work isn’t done quickly. Be patient and pay heavy attention to detail. I was a very inexperienced designer at the time, so watching others at 3iYing work taught me a lot. Sometimes people would spend five to ten minutes perfecting a single curve. I learned that it’s very important to perfect the design of anything that will be printed because physical objects are harder to erase than a website.
After receiving your bachelor’s degree in graphic design, you transitioned immediately into work at a time where others with similar merits were not able to. Can you speak to what attributes carried you into places like NASDAQ OMX and Bedrocket Media Ventures?
I’d been through four Web design internships by the time I graduated from college, so I think they saw my passion and ability to manage time well. I also worked on many side projects including a T-shirt business, freelance web design/development, and video game art. Many people go to design school because they want to make money, but I became a designer because I enjoy creating the things I think of. The visual difference between those who have a passion for their work and those who don’t is very obvious.
When I was recruited to work at NASDAQ OMX, the person in charge of hiring was very excited about the fact that I could design and code — something that was very rare at the time. Seeing that I could code, it’s very likely that they thought I might be open to trying new ways of designing for the web. I’m also pretty eccentric personality-wise: I try to be very straightforward and open about the fact that I’m awkward. I find that being honest helps people feel comfortable around me, which is important when your job is to improve the way people interact with digital products.
It’s also no secret that you’re a professed gamer. With E3 and IndieCade in people’s rearview, there’s still the huge conversation about diversity within the games industry and with games themselves. Why do you think big publishers, developers, and even some games media feel threatened with having to debate about the dearth of certain types of playable characters?
Unfortunately I think the people who design large-scale games don’t consider the lack of diversity because it’s not something they ever need to think about. The majority of those in power in the AAA games industry are white and male. Adding in characters who aren’t white and male feels like a burden. People of color and women must not be thought of as multifaceted humans — if we were, it wouldn’t be so hard to add a character who just happens to be a woman and/or a person of color.
The games industry has a lot of work to do in order to increase diversity in games, and it’s also partially up to consumers. Companies often don’t take risks because
they don’t want to lose millions of dollars in sales. We need to stop buying games that follow the same formula over and over again — white male protagonist with tons of shooting, maybe some hacking, and most likely some villanous stereotypical minorities — so that AAA companies realize it’s time to be innovative.We also need to empower more people from diverse backgrounds to make games AND survive in the games industry. Those with the privilege of being white and male in the games industry need to examine why the thought of inclusiveness is so scary. When we can talk about issues in the games industry without people resorting to the alien invasion mentality, people from diverse backgrounds won’t feel ashamed or alienated because they want to make games and happen to be different from the current majority.
Read on the next page, Catt Small’s thoughts about establishing herself…
The hoopla made about Ubisoft and their decision to not include any playable female characters in Assassin’s Creed: Unity incited a few people to raise their own arms and cry, “Foul!†Can you speak to what obstacles you’ve overcome to establish yourself not just as a capable visual and technical artist, but as a purveyor of coding?
CS: I work on a lot of small projects by myself. For a long time, I was afraid to take on the developer role in collaborations. Now, I try to volunteer when possible and take on the developer role because I seriously enjoy it. I also write about how I’ve used code for the purpose of design. I want people to think of me as a hybrid of sorts, someone who likes art, design, and programming.
Sometimes people do forget that I’ve been coding since I was 12 and I have to correct them. I’m okay with calling people out and making them feel silly for underestimating me. It wasn’t easy to build up the confidence in my programming skill, but now I teach and advise others. If you know me and don’t know I’m a developer, you weren’t paying attention and deserve to get called out.
CS: Brooklyn Gamery is a game development company and community-building service run by Chris Algoo, Dennis Liaw, Xer Gata, and me. We intentionally create characters that aren’t often seen in games. For example, the main character of our mobile game in the works is a multiracial woman with colored, curly hair. A multiplayer game we recently made for a hackathon features four randomly-generated young women of different backgrounds—there are two darker skin tones, and one of the hair options are large, curly twists. I enjoy pushing my team members to include more diverse characters in our projects, and they’re glad to because we all know what it feels like to not be represented in games.
Our goal is to actively create the change we want to see in the games industry. In addition to our games work, we organize events where people can come together and make games about topics that aren’t often explored. For example, last year we hosted a game jam about motherhood. This year, we hosted one about gender, sexual identity, and relationships. By creating safe spaces where diverse people can work together and make games with each other for free, we can help make the games industry a better place.
Your other initiative, The Code Liberation Foundation, is akin to Black Girls Code in that women of all ages can learn how to create their own indie games. What was the inspiration behind that and what are The Code Liberation Foundation’s goals to round out the rest of 2014?
Phoenix Perry, then adjunct professor at NYU, founded Code Liberation on International Women’s Day. From there she secured the institutional support of NYU Game Center and NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. After laying the groundwork, Phoenix recruited Jane Friedhoff, Kay Tran, Nina Freeman, and me to build an organization that would increase the number of women-made games. The best way to do that at first was by holding free classes, workshops, and events for women in New York City.
The games industry is currently a very negative place for women in many ways. Phoenix herself had a lot of frustrating experiences, including being hit on and being looked over at jobs and conferences despite being talented and capable. The number of women programmers in general has significantly decreased over the past 40 years due to to a number of factors including negative stereotypes, sexism, and poor working environments. The 2012 Game Developer Salary Survey states that approximately 4% of game developers are women. We plan to eventually build a publishing model that will help women to create games and sustain a living through game development.
For the rest of this year, we plan to offer more workshops in addition to intensive courses for people who want to delve further into game development. I will begin teaching a 7-week intensive web game development class on July 9th. We will also host one or two game jams and run a few workshops in other cities during gaming conferences. You can subscribe to our newsletter via our website or follow us on Twitter @CodeLiberation to hear more news about upcoming classes, workshops, and events.
On the next page, check out Catt Small’s thoughts about introducing coding to the youth…
What do you have to say to those who believe that it takes a lot of money or funding to develop your own games? Can you also talk about who else are some influencers that are helping to introduce coding to the youth?
I tell people who want to make games that only real cost these days is time. Making a game can take eight hours or 200 depending on the idea. It’s particularly easy to build a game now since many game development tools come with free versions, and several only require a text editor. Every tool and framework also has multiple tutorials now, which was not at all the case when I was young.
I think the hardest part about helping people to make games is dealing with the misconception that it’s really difficult to do. I’ve spoken at several schools about how easy it is to make games, and some of the tools I talk about, like Construct 2, Game Maker, and Phaser, are unheard of. I work really hard to share this information with people because they don’t have the privilege of being able to communicate directly with the games industry yet. So much of this information depends on who you know, and it’s unfortunate.
There are many wonderful groups that help kids learn to code. I recently met Errol and Patrice King from Beta and think they’re doing something really inspirational. Teaching kids to make games while they’re playing a game is so meta and genius. I’m really looking forward to seeing more from them. I’m also a large fan of Black Girls Code and CoderDojo. There are lots more initiatives out there as well, and I’m very glad that they exist.
Why do you think so few women of color are encouraged to learn more about coding?
I think most women of color don’t know programming is fun or a viable career option. People often look at code and think it’s like math, which is only fun if you’re taught about it in a positive way. Being into math, science, and computers is usually seen as nerdy, which is especially negative in the black community. I was lucky enough to go to a school full of black nerds multiple times, but definitely know the painful discrimination people who enjoy learning often face in the black community.
I actually stopped programming for a long time in high school, but fell into it again as I got older. Many women I’ve talked to also had the same experience. Parents and teachers need to stop encouraging young women to go toward less scientific roles despite clear interest in technology, and the tech industry needs to become a more positive environment for women. In order to be a programmer today, women need thick skins and a high tolerance for micro-aggressions. Similarly to the games industry, computer science needs to be more inclusive in order to gain and retain more women.
In addition to your UX Design work, numerous initiatives, classes and workshops, you’re an all-around pretty powerful person driven to create positive social change. How do you manage your time to achieve all these goals? What are some productivity tips that you could offer for the busy mover on the go?
My calendar and I are attached at the hip. Every meeting, even with friends and family, is laid out on my private calendar. I set alarms for each meeting based on travel and mental preparation time. In addition, I have a to-do list app called Any.do that I use on my phone and computers. Each morning, it reminds me about the tasks I’ve added throughout the month and allows me to schedule them for today, 2 days from now, or someday.
The best way to be productive is to find a system that works for you. I work really well with to-do lists and calendars. Other people need other kinds of systems or prefer a more analog approach. Find a way to work that doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed, and you’ll be most productive.
Also learn to say no, because there are always people who need help and you don’t have unlimited bandwidth to be of assistance. Value your time and be honest, because your word is important. People who are worth working with will respect your time.
Be sure to follow the latest ramblings and musings from Catt Small on Twitter — @CattSmall.