“Well, most users will have 3D touch by the next iPhone”
“I doubt many visually impaired people even use our product anyway”
“Sarah didn’t say anything during our meeting so she doesn’t seem to have an opinion on the architecture design”
“Don’t worry, users will get it once they use it”
As developers, we make assumptions every day. However, as Alan Alda stated “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.” Whether it is about your users or your teammates, our perceived thoughts drive how we approach software development - for better or worse. This talk will walk through some of the most common assumptions iOS engineers encounter and discuss ways we can learn to think more inclusively when it comes to both feature and app development, as well as within our own teams. We’ll also cover some strategies on how to keep an open mind when approaching these kinds of topics.
11. A S S U M P T I O N S W E
M A K E B U I L D I N G A P P S
12. A S S U M P T I O N # 1
“ W E L L , M O S T U S E R S W I L L H AV E [ I N S E R T
L AT E S T F E AT U R E H E R E ] B Y T H E N E X T
I P H O N E ”
14. @kristinathai kristina.io
T H I N G S T O C O N S I D E R ( E X T E R N A L FA C T O R S )
• Having features turned off
• Network speed (globally)
15. @kristinathai kristina.io
T H I N G S T O C O N S I D E R ( I N O U R C O N T R O L )
• Performance/memory usage
• Battery
• Backwards compatibility
26. @kristinathai kristina.io
– D AV I D S T O R E Y
“By designing for someone with a permanent disability, someone
with a situational disability can also benefit.”
https://twitter.com/dstorey/status/649636741033279488
46. A S S U M P T I O N # 5
“ T O M D I D N ’ T S AY A N Y T H I N G D U R I N G O U R
M E E T I N G S O H E D O E S N ’ T H AV E A N O P I N I O N
O N I T ”
48. @kristinathai kristina.io
D I V E R S E T E A M S M A K E B E T T E R P R O D U C T S
• Homogeneous thinking produces false sense of progress
• Diverse teams feel less comfortable, but perform better
• Focus on and process facts more carefully
• More innovative
https://hbr.org/2016/09/diverse-teams-feel-less-comfortable-and-thats-why-they-perform-better
https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter
49. A S S U M P T I O N # 6
“ A M Y A S K E D A L O T O F Q U E S T I O N S . S H E
C L E A R LY D O E S N ’ T K N O W W H AT S H E ’ S D O I N G ”
50. @kristinathai kristina.io
– L I Z A M U N D Y, T H E AT L A N T I C
“[There was] a whiteboarding session [where] a problem had an error
in it; when one female job candidate sensed this and kept asking
questions, evaluators felt that all her questions suggested she wasn’t
competent”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/why-is-silicon-valley-so-awful-to-women/517788/
51. S U G G E S T I O N
O B S E R V E Y O U R O W N T E A M A N D S AY
S O M E T H I N G
http://projectinclude.org/recommendations/
52. @kristinathai kristina.io
- A L A N A L D A
“Your assumptions are your windows on the
world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or
the light won't come in.”
53. T H A N K S !
kristina.io
@kristinathai
me@kristina.io