Three months ago, my smartphone died.
Since then, I've been living with a button phone.
I didn't expect it to become one of the most eye-opening UX experiments I've ever experienced.
As software engineers, we assume everyone has a smartphone. We build authentication around OTP apps, navigation around Google Maps, payments around QR codes, and communication around apps that simply don't exist on feature phones.
But what happens when the smartphone disappears?
For the past three months, I've had to answer that question every single day.
International friends would send me WhatsApp messages that I couldn't see until I found a computer. Event registrations expected QR codes that I couldn't present. Restaurants displayed digital menus I couldn't access. Two-factor authentication became a puzzle instead of a security feature. Even finding my way around an unfamiliar place became difficult because Google Maps was no longer in my pocket.
None of these systems were broken.
They were simply designed with one assumption:
Everyone has a smartphone.
As developers, we often talk about accessibility in terms of screen readers, color contrast, keyboard navigation, and responsive layouts. Those are important. But accessibility also means considering the devices people use and the constraints they live with.
The internet is global, but smartphones are not universal.
Millions of people still rely on feature phones because of cost, battery life, repairs, theft, or personal choice. If our applications silently fail for them, we've excluded a significant portion of potential users before they even reach our product.
This experience has changed how I think about software design.
Now, when I build, I ask different questions:
- Can this task be completed without scanning a QR code?
- Is there an alternative to app-based authentication?
- What happens if the user has intermittent internet access?
- Can the core functionality work without requiring the latest device?
- Have we optimized for convenience at the expense of inclusion?
Good software isn't just software that works under ideal conditions.
It's software that continues to work when the assumptions we made about our users are wrong.
Sometimes, the best usability testing isn't another browser.
It's living with a button phone for three months.
