There’s no “I” in “User”
Posted by Peter Cavallo on October 13, 2006
I have been thinking…and that’s never a good thing! As Usability Professionals we must be careful of the “I”. When asked by a developer, “What do you think?” we need to be careful the first words out of our mouths aren’t “I”. It’s so easy to say what we think and then backing it up with stats is not best practise. We aren’t about the “I” we about the “Users”. Ever heard some one say “Well, they say…”, who the hell is they?! I think sometimes we tend to use the “I” and the “They” as cop outs to get a point across quickly rather then pointing to facts, which is what usability professionals deal with day to day.
Facts. Cold hard evidence that the desicions we make are based on certainty. Hang on a minute! I hear you say, you can’t be that certain, I mean 100% just isn’t available, near enough is good enough right? Or maybe 99%, just like the packet of chips you buy beacause of the 99% fat free. Why can’t they just get rid of the 1% surely it can’t be that hard. Well, apparently if you take the 1% out and it all of a sudden tastes like shit and becomes health food….YUK!
So, what’s my point. Good question!
As a usability analyst, I need to be careful of making standards I find in usability mine. I would find it much more credible to hear someone say to the developer…”This is what the users are saying.” Not me, not 99% sure, but the users. As far as I’m concerned we aren’t there to set standards, we are there to find them and relay them to a specific situation. Generically saying, “I think it should be this or that..” is not what we are meant to be doing.
So, in summary…don’t say “I” or “they say” just say “the user”. 100% the user. Cold hard facts.
