[IxDA Discuss] Why do crappy interfaces sell?

[Katie Albers]

Before we go haring off too far on the question of whether the word 
"user" itself is misleading or derogatory or whatever, I'd really 
like to pull your attention to the fact that my issue with referring 
to "users" in this context is limited to this:

"Users" marks a group of people as "other" and in some sense lesser 
than the designers/developers/professionals.

So if you're trying to get people to believe that their experience 
and ability to employ a product are a relevant, even important, 
aspect of whether that product can be said to be "good"...that their 
opinion is -- in some sense -- the single most important factor in 
the determination of the "good" and that they have the right to 
demand that products conform to them rather than exclusively vice 
versa, it is a bad idea to use a distancing word to describe these 
people.

Katie

At 3:40 PM -0500 1/24/08, W Evans wrote:
>Yes - we've beat this poor horse dead before - looks like someone dug the
>poor thing up for an addition round of beating.
>
>Semantically - people who are interacting with machines to accomplish a task
>are using the machine.
>Drug addicts to not use the drugs, they take the drugs - but that horse is
>out of the barn and we can't fix it.
>I always thought the appropriate term was Library Patron? Is user on the
>uptick because of the increasing reliance on machines for access to
>information?
>
>On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:26:17, jayhilwig <jayhilwig at cablespeed.com> wrote:
>
>>  The use of the term %u201Cuser%u201D (in a different context) was
>>  raised and debated not long ago on this list:
>>  http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=18748
>>
>>  Besides the negative connotations of gun %u201Cusers%u201D and drug
>>  %u201Cusers%u201D don%u2019t forget to include library
>>  %u201Cusers%u201D and park %u201Cusers%u201D.
>>
>>  %u201CAlthough I cannot make a statement about whether or not usage
>>  of the term "user" referring to library patrons is increasing,
>>  decreasing, or stable within the library world, I can confirm that it
>>  is being used.%u201D
>>  _cut_
>>  Thank you,
>>  Toby
>>  General Reference Services
>>  The Seattle Public Library
>>
>>  In the US, State Parks denote mixed use trails with safety signs
>>  %u201CAll Users Stay Right%u201D.
>>
>>
>>  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>>  Posted from the new ixda.org
>>  http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=24918
>>
>>
>>  ________________________________________________________________
>>  *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah*
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>>
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>
>
>
>--
>~ will
>
>"Where you innovate, how you innovate,
>and what you innovate are design problems"
>-------------------------------------------------------
>will evans
>user experience architect
>wkevans4 at gmail.com
>-------------------------------------------------------
>________________________________________________________________
>*Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah*
>February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA
>Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/
>
>________________________________________________________________
>Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
>To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
>Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
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-- 

----------------
Katie Albers
katie at firstthought.com