5 ms·

it costs you nothing to say "less sophisticated user" and it captures the full range of your problem. you're not specifically trying to make your website easy f

by munin 11y ago

it costs you nothing to say "less sophisticated user" and it captures the full range of your problem. you're not specifically trying to make your website easy for octogenarians to use - you want it to be usable by everyone, with no assumptions. why say something in an exclusive way when you could say it in an inclusive way?

pc86 11y ago
Because context is a thing. Here, I will rewrite the text from the article with your suggestion: > Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: A less sophisticated user. Here you can hire a less sophisticated user to torture your website. Not to mention the fact that the website in question is literally theuserismymom.com.
- munin 11y ago
  if I were branding a usability testing website I probably wouldn't name it "the user is my mom" but rather name it "we built a better idiot" or something. boom! now we're not sexist or ageist and it's clearer what the purpose of the website/company is.
  - groovy2shoes 11y ago
    That's really insensitive. One of my best friends is an idiot, and I don't appreciate you putting a whole group of people down. There are a lot of idiots who are genuinely good people.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- wpietri 11y ago
  Replacing the exact phrase doesn't work precisely because the stereotype here is used in a demeaning way. The solution isn't to shrug and say, "Gosh, this rewrite is too hard for mortal man." It's to do a more complete rewrite. E.g.: > Even better than a drunk UX expert: an ordinary user. Developer Scotty Allen makes available his actual mom, a high school tutor, to give you her take on what's wrong with your web site. The difference for me between theuserismymom.com and the "moms are worse than drunk people" spin is respect. Scotty is promoting his mom as a savvy person. Whereas the, "so simple even your mom could use it" stereotype is typically lazy, sexist bullshit.

by munin 11y ago

pc86 11y ago

Because context is a thing. Here, I will rewrite the text from the article with your suggestion: > Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: A less sophisticated user. Here you can hire a less sophisticated user to torture your website. Not to mention the fact that the website in question is literally theuserismymom.com.

munin 11y ago
if I were branding a usability testing website I probably wouldn't name it "the user is my mom" but rather name it "we built a better idiot" or something. boom! now we're not sexist or ageist and it's clearer what the purpose of the website/company is.
- groovy2shoes 11y ago
  That's really insensitive. One of my best friends is an idiot, and I don't appreciate you putting a whole group of people down. There are a lot of idiots who are genuinely good people.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
wpietri 11y ago
Replacing the exact phrase doesn't work precisely because the stereotype here is used in a demeaning way. The solution isn't to shrug and say, "Gosh, this rewrite is too hard for mortal man." It's to do a more complete rewrite. E.g.: > Even better than a drunk UX expert: an ordinary user. Developer Scotty Allen makes available his actual mom, a high school tutor, to give you her take on what's wrong with your web site. The difference for me between theuserismymom.com and the "moms are worse than drunk people" spin is respect. Scotty is promoting his mom as a savvy person. Whereas the, "so simple even your mom could use it" stereotype is typically lazy, sexist bullshit.