Post AJ6nxDAMILMfdfj01w by jyrgi66@social.tchncs.de
 (DIR) More posts by jyrgi66@social.tchncs.de
 (DIR) Post #AJ6S0EvG1UAKxnhTc0 by humanetech@mastodon.social
       2022-05-04T06:39:46Z
       
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       @aral put in strongest terms that we should avoid the term "User" in software development.I've been practicing this, which is not always easy. What I found is that it is not the alternative terminology and language we use that is most important, but the extra attention, added awareness and the thought process we follow that makes the difference.> Best practice: By trying to avoid referring to people as “Users” we force ourself to be more focused on their actual needshttps://discuss.coding.social/t/humane-design-avoiding-the-term-user/61
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6S0FLURx9KH9yQV6 by doctormo@mastodon.social
       2022-05-04T07:01:48Z
       
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       @humanetech @aral These claims require proof. Not because I don't believe it, but because I think the effect size is way smaller than economic effects.The developer always has an eye on where the bread is coming from. That eye could fall on user needs.
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6S0Fm4r6PtbcPewS by humanetech@mastodon.social
       2022-05-04T07:25:22Z
       
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       @doctormo @aral Well, my personal experience, effectively counts as an N=1, makes it likely better to talk of a "Suggested practice". This may not appeal to everyone, but the proof is in the pudding when people try this themself.@axbom highlighted a good article in https://social.axbom.com/@axbom/108242356308653301As to economic effects and the developer always having an eye on those.. I am not so sure I agree with that. Note that with practice there need not be a lot of time loss to think of alternative lang use.
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6S0GHywTwBCZL8fg by doctormo@mastodon.social
       2022-05-04T07:33:53Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @humanetech @aral I'm not sure what your business model is. But my N=1 is that contracting for users focuses my mind on the issues they bring to me. My actual desire to do fun things takes a back seat, when you have real world users telling you their stories of loosing ten ours of work from a badly handled crash, or just finding a specific task hard to do.
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6nxDAMILMfdfj01w by jyrgi66@social.tchncs.de
       2022-05-04T06:46:05Z
       
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       @humanetech @aral isn’t this an absolutely needless discussion?
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6nxDi2H8IrK7TtWS by humanetech@mastodon.social
       2022-05-04T06:57:12Z
       
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       @jyrgi66 @aral I believe it is not. We are so used to refer to 'users' also think "Why would we make people's needs less central when using this term". But OTOH it happens all the time that we are so focused on technical details and abstraction that this actually happens.There may be a subtle psychology at work triggered by our language use that works on us subconsciously. Not unlike (though that is a very strong example) how we 'other' the enemy in war by never referring to their humanness.
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6nxELNupmLI9tJr6 by jyrgi66@social.tchncs.de
       2022-05-04T06:59:40Z
       
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       @humanetech @aral for me it is just an example how society gets overcorrect. At the end no one knows what’s still appropriate. Btw. have you asked the people that you name users for their opinion?
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6nxF43ElVXWgmzTc by humanetech@mastodon.social
       2022-05-04T07:08:01Z
       
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       @jyrgi66 @aral When referring to "overcorrectness" that is a wholly different angle than the one that makes it important to give thought to using alternative language. It has nothing to do with wokeness or the presently favourable way of polite expression.It is about not thinking in abstractions and technical nitty gritty details that make you lose sight of why / what you are creating and whom you are creating it for.
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6nxFn4XNWJmJqweO by maytree1@mastodon.social
       2022-05-04T11:30:28Z
       
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       @humanetech @jyrgi66 @aral Accusations of political correctness or wokeness aside, I'm simply not sure how replacing the word "users" with a synonym or paraphrase every few times is supposed to benefit the people formerly known as users. But then I already didn't understand how disabled people benefit from being referred to as "people with disabilities", so I may simply not be intellectually up to the task. 🤷‍♂️
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6nxGZzbUeUE2k0u0 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
       2022-05-04T12:13:36Z
       
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       @maytree1 @humanetech @jyrgi66 For the same reason that I would urge people to call people people and not “human capital.”It removes an othering.As @humanetech said earlier, it’s much more about the process of forcing yourself to think of people as people.As an added side-effect, the stuff you write (documentation, etc.) begins to sound much more human. Compare:“There are 29 users on this instance.”“There are 29 people on this instance.”
       
 (DIR) Post #AJ6nxHQ6TkKspf7d7w by otso@pleroma.karjalazet.se
       2022-05-04T12:40:37.292007Z
       
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       @aral @maytree1 @humanetech @jyrgi66 would you call clients for "buying people"?