Right before a role=drinks meetup I had a very pleasant conversation with Léonie Watson about what quality means to her. Her definition of quality may differ a bit from many other digital designers and engineers. Léonie turned blind 16 years ago, so certain things we consider to be important might not even exist for her, and the things that are most important to her may not be the first things designers and developers think about.

Sometimes the one bit of inaccessibility is enough to bring the whole lot crashing down

We talked about why so many websites are badly built. About the fundamental basics that are missing in many of the frameworks that developers like to use today. And about the designers who believe that wow-experience is more important than user experience. We also talked about the future of technology, incredible things like AI, and how this may make life so much easier for so many people: I like the idea of self driving cars, Léonie needs one. But we also talk about some of the conflicts that exist, for instance between accessibility and privacy, or between different needs of different people.

It was a pleasant conversation. And the tea was nice as well.