I have not Users

…there are only two industries which refer to their customers as users, drugs and computers.

— Edward Tufte

I first heard this quote a number of years ago, and it has since been misquoted and misused, notably replacing ‘drugs’ with ‘illegal drugs’. However, it still rings true to me. Why do we refer to those that utilise our software, web sites, services etc. as ‘users’ rather than:

• Customers
• Clients
• Visitor
• Consumer
• Patron (probably not, but you get the idea)
• Anything else that is specific to your application. In finance perhaps, you might use ‘Adviser’ for example.

I can’t explain why we do.

Now consider the negative conatations of the word ‘user’ when in the context of:

…there are only two industries which refer to their customers as users, drugs and computers.

— Edward Tufte

Add in the growing research and concern around the additive nature of certain ‘computers’ or technology such as Social Media, the parallels are certainly there.

Time for a different approach

For a while now I have been making a concerted effort to not use the word ‘users’ when referring to those whom use the technology I develop. Don’t get me wrong, it is a hard habit to break. I have found however, it feels like I’m becoming more familiar and aware of those that do. It’s as if by referring to those ‘users’ by another noun, the real persona of the individual develops.

In practicing this, I’ve also noticed something else: when we all refer to those that use technology as ‘users’, it becomes difficult having conversations with each other. For example,

Dave: Hi, a user has submitted order #123. I can see from our logs this order hit your system, but we don’t know what’s happened. Can you find out?

Jane: Hi Dave, yep I can see there was an issue with the user’s order. A user has checked-out the order on the system to investigate.

Dave: Thank you Jane, when will the user get an update?

Jane: ???

See what I mean? If everyone is talking about users, it can quickly become unclear about whom everyone is talking about! If we switch our terminology instead to ‘Customer’ and ‘Sales Agent’, it becomes far clearer.

Dave: Hi, a customer has submitted order #123. I can see from our logs this order hit your system, but we don’t know what’s happened. Can you find out?

Jane: Hi Dave, yep I can see there was an issue with the customer’s order. A sales agent has checked-out the order on the system to investigate.

Dave: Thank you Jane, when will the customer get an update?

Jane: Not sure, I’ll ping a message to the agent for an update.

Personas

When I refer to the ‘clients’ of an application, I’m able to better describe and empathise with their experience as well as better illustrate the purpose of the application itself. For example:

When a user is on the checkout page, they are seeing an error…

Now substitute the word “User” with “customer”…

When a customer is on the checkout page, they are seeing an error…

It gives a different meaning and importance to the sentence. By changing that one word, we immediately understand more about what is going on and what the consequences could be. For me the differences are:

A customer is someone who:

• Is engaged.
• Wants to ‘give us money’! But we can lose money, if we provide a poor experience.
• Will possibly come back if they have a great experience. Or won’t if they don’t.
• provides an opportunity for us to build a relationship with.

A user however feels more passive and less engaged. It doesn’t immediately describe what they want or their purpose.

Closing

I think if everyone in technology were to transition away to referring to the consumers of their tech, applications, services, web sites etc. to nouns more reflective of the customer’s experience / persona, we will build better, more engaging and valuable tech.

The next time you go to refer to a ‘user’ of your web site, pause. Are they a visitor or perhaps a customer? Depending on your response, may just change how you think about and treat them and their experience.