User Empathy in Software Engineering

The Human on The Other Side of The Screen

Call me "naive", but we as engineers have a moral responsibility that goes beyond the sprint goals. It's not about shipping features for the business; it's about the human on the other side of the screen.

A nurse finishing a 12-hour shift who needs to log an event.
An admin who needs to onboard a new hire without a headache.

Your code can make their day seamless or frustrating. You decide.

If you cant make their job easier, at least dont make it harder → that's the bare minimum.

It's easy to get lost in the code, the PRs, the Jira tickets. But someone, somewhere, is going to click that button. And they're going to feel something. Make them feel great.

Don't build another crappy software.

This article was originally published on https://craftengineer.com/. It was written by a human and polished using grammar tools for clarity.
--

Follow me on X (Formally, Twitter). Or read my stories on engineering management, and how to be a better engineering leader on Vibe Manager Blog.