You, Me, User
Aug 22nd, 2007 by Anne Sandstrom
A few weeks ago, I was reading a blog about avoiding the term “user.” ((I’m sick of users)) I’ve disliked the word subliminally for a while, but hadn’t crystallized my thinking about why. Until now.
Josh Bernoff’s last point really hit home. It made me think, “A user is just one letter away from someone who is being used.”
I have to admit that until recently, though, I didn’t really get it. I was always looking at the web from deep within code, kind of like looking at the world from the bottom of a pond. Everything was murky, and complicated, and distorted. I was so busy tangled up in the water weeds, that I forgot about all the kids splashing around on the surface. I forgot that ponds (and the web) are fun!
Lately, though, I’ve been sensing that, in web and device application development, we’re all poised to surface. To stop thinking about what we can do, and more about what we can do for you. Because you’re no longer the hordes swarming just outside the firewall. “We have met the users and they are us.” (With apologies to Walt Kelly and Oliver Hazard Perry.)
So, maybe it’s time to retire the term “user” once and for all. Because, it’s about you. And me. All of us. And who are we? People.
When Microsoft launched its “people-ready” campaign, I have to admit to a certain amount of skepticism. I snickered. But, in retrospect, it’s a step in the right direction. Remembering that people, not processors, not W3C standards, not platforms, not browsers, are the beginning and end of all we do.
People. Not users.
The post about users struck a nerve with many of us in the blogosphere. As someone with diabetes I think that device makers don’t even think of the users of their systems and I blogged about this.
Now I understand better the different ways to think about your customers. There’s a spectrum from someone you ab-use to someone that you have a full-fledged relationship with. I’d rather companies treat me as if they want to have a relationship with. Unfortunately there are still too many companies that abuse me by selling to me and then setting me adrift. Why don’t they “turn strangers into friends and friends into customers”, to quote from one of Seth Godin’s books.