Can you do meaningful work with this software while eating a sandwich?
One hand occupied. Mouth full. Attention split between the screen and the moment. If you can still get real work done, the design is right. If you have to put the sandwich down, the software is asking too much of you.
The effort has to live somewhere. Most software puts it on the user. Click this. Drag that. Fill out the form. Navigate the menu. Find the setting. Confirm the dialog. The user does the work. The system records it.
Software that passes the sandwich test inverts this. The system does the work. The user exercises judgment. The minimum viable input from a human is an opinion.
What it looks like
Code Review
Fails: Open the PR. Click through files. Read diffs. Type comments. Click approve. Both hands. Full attention.
Passes: The system walks you through changes, narrates what happened and why, flags what needs attention. You say "looks good" or "that error handling is wrong."
Fails: Open each message. Read. Decide. Click archive or reply. Type a response. Repeat forty times.
Passes: The system summarizes your inbox. "Three need responses, two are FYI, rest is noise. Here's what I'd say to each." You say "send the first two, rewrite the third, skip the rest."
Project Management
Fails: Open Jira. Drag cards across columns. Update status fields. Type descriptions. Assign team members. Schedule the next sprint.
Passes: The system shows you the state of things and narrates the blockers. "Design is done, I'd move it to dev. QA is backed up, want me to flag it?" You say yes or no.
Creative Tools
Fails: Timeline editor. Drag clips. Adjust keyframes. Scrub the playhead. Nudge the timing. Export. Wait. Review. Redo.
Passes: The system plays the cut and narrates the changes. "Here's where you said the transition was too fast. I eased it out. Watch." You say "that works" or "slower." It moves on.
Analytics
Fails: Open the dashboard. Set the date range. Click filters. Hover for tooltips. Export to CSV. Build the chart yourself.
Passes: The system tells you what changed and what matters. "Revenue up 12%, but churn spiked in enterprise. Three accounts flagged. Want details?"
The pattern
In every example, the same thing happens. The system does the work. The system presents its work. The user judges. Every interaction from the user is pure signal. An opinion. A direction. A decision. Not a mechanical step.
If a workflow requires seven clicks to accomplish one goal, that's six decisions the system should have made, leaving the user with one: was that right?
It's not about removing all interaction. It's about making the remaining interaction matter. Every click, every word from the user should be a judgment call. Not a chore the system was too lazy to handle.
How to apply it
Before any feature ships, before any UX decision locks in, hold the sandwich. Literally, if you want. One hand busy. Can you still get the thing done?
If the answer is no, the design is pushing work onto the human that belongs on the system. The fix isn't to make the clicks easier. It's to eliminate the need for them.
The user's job is taste, judgment, and direction. Everything else is the machine's problem.