It’s not “user” experience, it’s “people” or “customer” experience.

Posted on November 16, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 4 Comments

“It’s not ‘user’ experience, it’s ‘people’ or ‘customer’ experience. The term ‘user’ can be a barrier to good design.” - Sarah Hanley

“It’s not ‘user’ experience, it’s ‘people’ or ‘customer’ experience. The term ‘user’ can be a barrier to good design.” – Sarah Hanley

This quote is from Sarah’s submission to Johnny Holland’s #uxtip contest, collected via Twitter.

Catriona Cornett

Catriona is a User Experience Designer who has helped over a dozen organizations obtain a competitive advantage by delivering great user experiences across desktop, mobile, tablet and other channels.

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Filed Under: Sarah Hanley
  • http://exvertebrum.wordpress.com Rafael Rez Oliveira

    Could I disagree?

    “User” is a immune term.

    “People” is too much lovy and potentially atract non-objective approach.

    “Customer” is a marketing word that means “client”, the one who need to be pleased.

    The use of the word “User” keep things simple and clear, by the way. By the way, I also agree with Sarah in general: always remenber that a “user” is a person you could know!

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  • http://www.simplyread.ca Michelle Black

    I’ve been meditating and blogging on this topic recently as well. As it turns out, the word ‘customer’ can have its own pitfalls. You can see a couple views on this at: http://www.simplyread.wordpress.com.

  • Nobadtag

    Totally agree. The term customer experience reveals a focus on selling stuff and thus is – if anything – detrimental to user experience.
    Customer experience has the objective to keep customers happy and to convince them to be loyal to a ‘brand’ (most hateful term of the century) and purchase more.
    User experience is a neutral term and it should mean the real thing: designing solely on the side of users, with no commercial agenda, hidden or explicit.

    There, you have it.