People Don’t Care
The only thing I take issue with is the word “users”.
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This entry was written by and posted on 15 Aug 2007 at 12:53 pm and filed under User Interface, Web Sites. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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5 Comments
When did ‘users’ get such a bad rap in the IA community?
We all USE things. Seems completely appropriate to me, aside from it maybe being a bit generic if one needs to differentiate users by personas.
Am I uncouth? ;o)
I’ve had an issue with the term for a decade now. ‘Users’, like ‘consumers’ is a dehumanizing term. We’re all people and our intention is never to ‘use’ or to ‘consume’. It’s to ‘do’ something.
“‘Users’, like ‘consumers’ is a dehumanizing term.”
Hmm…but ‘consumers’ is very much a business-centric term. And, one could argue, at least in this country, what makes us most human. (for better and/or worse) ;o)
I guess I’d argue that in the context of web interaction ‘do’ is synonymous with ‘use’ or ‘consume’, though I’ll grant you that ‘do’ might be a better term in getting clients focused on the specific needs of their own customers.
Speaking of which, perhaps ‘customer’ is the better term?
‘Customers’ is better for 2 reasons;
1. It includes the word ‘custom’, as in ‘I want it my way, not the way everyone else puts up with’. Putting the customer in the power position in the transaction.
2. It assumes value is exchanged in both directions. Unlike ‘consumer’ where value is measured in how fast crap can get shoved down gullets.
Darrel/Garrick
The comments on this post make me think both of you have too much time on your hands…
cheers