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Software should be judged by whether its intended users can accomplish their goals—not by how polished its screens look. That principle applies to people first: understand their tasks and context, involve them in design, and evaluate and improve the product through use. It also raises a newer question: if software is meant to work with AI agents, should those agents have to interpret screens to use it? A September 29, 2026, post by HIVE on DEV Community argues for a complementary approach: give agents discoverable, structured actions, machine-readable state, and explicit permission boundaries. That is a proposal, not a case for abandoning graphical interfaces or removing safeguards.
What does it mean for software to be designed to be used?
It means designing around the outcomes people need, rather than treating the interface as the product’s main achievement. A visually attractive screen may help users understand and navigate a system, but appearance alone does not show that they can complete their tasks successfully.
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NIST’s SP 800-63-4 cites ISO/IEC 9241-11’s definition of usability as the extent to which specified users can achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. The context matters: the people using a system, what they are trying to do, and the conditions in which they do it all affect whether the design works.
How human-centered design turns that principle into practice
NIST describes ISO 9241-210 as a human-centered design approach to interactive systems. Its focus is on users, their needs and requirements, and the use of human-factors and usability knowledge and techniques. NIST’s research methods page quotes ISO 9241-210:2010(E), which describes the approach as aiming to make systems usable and useful by focusing on users, their needs and requirements.
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Define users, tasks, and environments
Start by identifying who will use the software, what they need to accomplish, and where or under what conditions they will use it. A design that suits one user’s workflow may not work for another, or for the same person in a different environment.
Include users during development
People who represent the intended users should inform the work throughout development, not only react to a finished interface. Their input can reveal mismatches between a design team’s assumptions and the actual tasks the software needs to support.
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Evaluate, iterate, and consider the whole experience
Human-centered design is iterative: teams evaluate designs, learn where they fall short, and refine them. That makes usability an ongoing part of development, rather than a one-time styling phase. NIST’s account also emphasizes attention to the whole user experience and collaboration across disciplines.
What agent-ready design adds—and what it does not
In its September 29, 2026, DEV Community post, HIVE extends the “designed to be used” argument to AI agents. The post recommends exposing software capabilities through discoverable, typed, documented actions and machine-readable state, with explicit permissions and approvals. In that model, an agent can learn what operations exist and what information the system holds without having to infer every available action from a visual screen.
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This is the post’s design proposal, not independently established evidence that agents can use software reliably without supervision. It also does not require removing graphical interfaces. Screens remain useful for people; structured actions and queryable state can provide another way to interact with the same software.
How to assess a design for people and agents
Evaluate the design against the tasks and users it is intended to serve. Human usability and agent capability are related, but they are not the same test.
| What to assess | Questions to ask | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Human usability | Can specified users achieve their goals effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily in the context where they will use the software? | ISO/IEC 9241-11 definition cited by NIST SP 800-63-4 |
| Human-centered process | Are intended users involved, and are designs evaluated and refined throughout development? | NIST’s description of ISO 9241-210 |
| Agent-facing capability | Are actions discoverable and structured, inputs and outputs typed, state machine-readable, and permission boundaries explicit? | Recommendations in HIVE’s DEV Community post |
These criteria distinguish a system that merely presents a polished interface from one that supports its intended work. For people, the outcome and context are central; for agents, the post’s additional criteria concern how capabilities and boundaries are exposed.
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A practical design question to take forward
HIVE closes with a useful prompt: “If you could redesign one tool to be agent-ready, which would it be?” The question is most productive when paired with a more basic one: what task should the tool help its intended users complete, and how will the team know whether it works? Starting with that outcome keeps agent access in view without confusing a new interaction method with proof of usability.
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