Don't call people users: April 01, 2002 issue of New Thinking

April 01, 2002 New Thinking:
Don't call people users

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April 01, 2002

Don't call people users

By Gerry McGovern

'User' is a catchall and ultimately a mean-nothing word. It reflects a technology-centric, rather than a people-centric view of the Web. To call someone a user is largely meaningless. To call them a reader, customer, investor, employee, creates a focus for why you have a website and what you want it to achieve.

We don't call people car users, bicycle users or horse users. Rather, we call them drivers, cyclists and riders. We name them for the predominant activity they carry out while engaged with a tool or animal. To drive means to move forward. Calling someone a driver doesn't mean they can't reverse.

Computers are multi-purpose tools and thus there is some excuse for calling people computer users. But it is not enough of an excuse. If Stephen King uses a word processor to write his next novel is he a computer user or a novelist?

Naming is an incredibly important function. When we call people web users, what do we mean? Absolutely nothing. Because what is a tool for if not to be used? Naming the use of the tool gives that tool a meaning. Without meaning, there is a lack of focus and intent. It's very easy to forget what we have a website for if we talk about users.

The predominant activity on the Web is reading. Why not call the people who come to your website, readers? It would help you focus on ensuring that there's something on your website for them to read. It would help you focus on ensuring that your content on the screen is readable.

Or call them staff, customers, investors, sales reps, journalists, consumers, students, senior citizens … When you name them you create focus for why you are doing what you are doing. You make things more human.

The phrase 'user-friendly' should never have had to be invented. It implies that technology is inherently hostile and that a new discipline – usability – had to be invented to make it friendlier. After all, we don't refer to cars as 'driver-friendly.' We don't refer to bicycles as 'cyclist-friendly.' We don't refer to chairs as 'bum-friendly.'

Deep in the heart of much technology is an antipathy and contempt for people. Many computer pioneers saw people as inherently stupid, with computers having a logical purity. The view was that science and technology should strive to replace and automate the things that people did.

In 1974, American psychologist, B.F. Skinner wrote: "The disastrous results of common sense in the management of human behavior are evident in every walk of life, from international affairs to the care of a baby, and we shall continue to be inept in all these fields until a scientific analysis clarifies the advantages of a more effective technology."

Drugs and the Web have at least three words in common: user, traffic, hit. Let's break the habit. Put your website into cold turkey. Ask it to look into its soul and examine just why exactly it exists. If it can't figure out that it's there to serve readers, customers, staff, or some other section of society, it's in deep trouble.

So, let's dump this word 'user.' And if you can't come up with a better word for people, just call them people.

Gerry McGovern

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Drugs and the Web have at least three words in common: user, traffic, hit. Let's break the habit.

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