[IxDA Discuss] TechCrunch defends the life of the "user"

[Esteban Barahona]

...I was going to suggest the use of "I" but someone write it
before. For visualising in the design process it may work.

The background of "user" in computing is not positive. It's
basically one layer more in the system. Not even the direction of the
interactivity is user-centric; as one software engineer professor told
us once: "Input/Output is CPU-centric, that's why most coders
doesn't get it (the direction of interactivity and information) at
the first time". This means that input methods are not an input of
information to users' minds, it's an input of code to the CPU.
Output doesn't comes from the user experience but from the CPU
(...or GPU).

There's being a historical disdain for the user from most software
developers, even using the name "luser" (reading: loser). In this
way, the user can be thought as another CPU... and a clumsy one. Some
quotes:

"Unix is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its
simplicity." %u2013 Dennis Ritchie
"UNIX was not designed to stop its users from doing stupid things,
as that would also stop them from doing clever things." %u2013 Doug
Gwyn
"Unix is user-friendly. It just isn't promiscuous about which users
it's friendly with." %u2013 Steven King

This are Unix-specific but still. And it's also common in security
to use concepts such as "social engineer", "the weakest security
layer/element are users". And there's the assumption of a
difference between "classes": (computer)>coder>power-user>user

"User Centered Design" is a way of saying that all this history is
wrong, but using the same concepts. This idea should be implicit, not
the center of a design philosophy. IMO, we should call it just
"Design" and elevate the standards of satisfaction for (users).
Even concept of interface is almost like treating objects and
subjects as equal systems interfacing to form a machine, the Matrix
(...or w-e). Isn't interaction similar? from wikipedia:
"interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more OBJECTS
have an effect upon one another."

I support using "I" (when designing, speaking in "human
language") and "user" (when coding, speaking in "machine
language") ie: the "home directory": /Users/I


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Posted from the new ixda.org
http://beta.ixda.org/discuss?post=18748