Published 2026-09-06

Crafting Software Can Be As Accessible As Design

I was reading this old funding announcement from Replit. I'm not sure why, don't ask.

There was this paragraph I ran across while skimming (emphasis mine)

Replit hopes to stand out from the competition by being the coding agent for non-technical workers, like sales staff, marketers and small business owners. Instead of working inside a code editor, the company wants to make building apps and software more like graphic design. With Agent 4, users can start by choosing from a series of buttons to tell the agent what they want to create, including spreadsheets, data visualizations, 3D games, and more. The idea is to provide the easiest user interface to navigate, from brainstorming and iterating to deploying the app.

More like graphic design... I like that. Anyone can download GIMP, or a Photoshop clone and make something to convey a message. A flier for their party, garage sale sign, etc. You don't even need a computer, just a pen and paper will do. In that sense, graphic design is extremely accessible.

But that doesn't make it easy to make good design. Software like Canva tries to make it easy, and I believe it does help. I really like this idea that we can have something similar for software.