I usually pay attention when someone asserts that "words matter," because I agree, vehemently. I pay more attention when Don Norman says that words matter:
Years ago, in my research group at the University of California, San Diego, I remember Liam Bannon passionately arguing that the terms we used would control the way we thought, acted, behaved and, ultimately, designed. Do not make your systems idiot or fool proof, he convincingly preached, for why would you want to think of your constituency as idiots or fools? Yup. Bannon[base ']s teachings apply just as strongly today. We no longer talk of idiot proofing, but why do we degrade people by the passive, inert term of [base "]user.[per thou] People are rich, complex beings. They use our devices with specific goals, motives, and agendas. Often they work with [^] or against [^] others. A label such as customer, consumer or user ignores this rich structure of abilities, motives, and social structures. Time to admit that we are people, that we design for people. Yes, I know, the various terms arose from the need to distinguish the many different roles people play in the world of artifacts, machines, and gizmos: those who specify, those who distribute, those who purchase (customers), those who actually use them (users). Those who stand by and watch. But that is still no excuse. All of them are people. All deserve their share of dignity. Their roles can be specified in other ways. It is time to wipe words such as consumer, customer, and user from our vocabulary. Time to speak of people. Power to the people. . . . [jnd.org] I couldn't agree more: the words that we use make an immense difference in how we think, and in everything that our thinking affects.
Apparently this is a piece that Don wrote for ACM ; I'm guessing it's the June/July issue, which hasn't arrived in my mailbox yet. Even as a contributor, my copy gets sent out in one of the batches, and sometimes arrives a week or two after other subscribers receive theirs. Oh, well. Later: D'oh, the May/June issue is already here, so it must be the July/August <interactions> that Don's column will appear in. Silly me.
4:17:40 PM 
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