Who are we designing software for?
20 May 2026
From one of my early 99-second talks at Manchester, I asked a series of questions. At Nordic Testing Days (NTD) in Estonia, the same thing happened. After asking four simple questions, I was left with one person standing. The questions were:
- Do you wear glasses or contact lenses? (I could have included had any kind of eye surgery to improve eyesight)
- Have you ever zoomed in on a phone, tablet, or desktop to read or see something more clearly?
- Do you use any kind of non-traditional keyboard or mouse?
- Have you ever had to use a phone with one hand in any circumstances?
If the question applied to you, I asked them to sit down. 1 person left on both occasions. I've done this a few times, and the most I've had was 3. Those people standing are who software is designed for, if accessibility is not considered. I recently rediscovered the NTD talk, so the link is below if you want to see the questions or the whole talk.
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/satellites/accessibility-assumptions-and-arguments-talk
Ady Stokes
Freelance Consultant
He / Him
MoT Ambassador. Currently semi-retired and freelancing. I am, amongst other things, a writer, speaker, and accessibility advocate. Leeds Chapter Lead. MoT Certs curator and article editor for WonderProxy. Testing wisdom, friendly, testing songs and poems. Great minds think differently. STEC and SQEC Certified. Struggling to write a book about testing mindsets and thinking's application in software development.
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