Quoting Laurie Voss

📰 Simon Willison's Blog

As software development costs decrease, the focus shifts to understanding user needs and creating pleasant user experiences, which is a unique cost per software piece

intermediate Published 14 Sept 2026

Action Steps

Identify user needs using techniques like user research and interviews
Define software requirements precisely using tools like user stories and wireframes
Design pleasant user experiences using principles like usability and accessibility
Prioritize user experience in software development
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure user needs are met

Who Needs to Know This

Product managers, software engineers, and UX designers benefit from understanding this shift in software development costs and focusing on user needs and experience

Key Insight

💡 The cost of writing code is decreasing, but the cost of understanding user needs and creating pleasant user experiences remains unique per software piece

Full Article

The cost of writing code collapsed, and the cost of reviewing, fixing and operating it is following, and I'm assuming it gets there. What's left of making software is finding out what people actually want, defining it precisely, and making it pleasant to use. That cost is per piece of software and doesn't transfer, so as the amount of software goes to infinity, which it will because there's no ceiling on demand, that

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