One thing that all software development has in common is users. Software without users is meaningless. We do our best to develop high-quality software solutions to our users’ problems, then release them into the wild to help people achieve the things they need to do.

Then, within days, weeks or months we receive support queries and reports of issues. It is surprising just how many of these queries and issues turn out to be simply questions about how to achieve something within the application we have produced.

However, if we look at this a little deeper, it should not be that surprising that our users find something difficult that we, as IT professionals, might consider easy.

In truth, anyone working in tech is a veritable uber-geek in comparison to the general population. A survey of developed countries found that much of the population is unable to complete medium-complexity tasks, and that only a small percentage has high-level computer-related skills. This is something that we all need to consider when building software solutions.

This session summarises the results of the survey and includes context and key points to help you visualise and understand the ability levels of the average user. It can’t be all that bad, can it?