From this week's readings, I chose to read Adam Lefton's " As a Designer, I Refuse to Call People ‘Users’." As someone considering UI/UX design as a career, Lefton's article left me thinking critically about the terminology and semantics surrounding the word "user." Although I agree that the word "user" plays a role in flattening and dehumanizing the people we are designing for, I find it challenging to move forward without potential replacements for a word that dominates the industry. In brainstorming potentially new terms, I present the ideas of "collaborators" or "partners." People we are working together with to design a better tomorrow.
One of the major values I hold is the belief that design has the power to change the world for the better. Moreover, I believe that it is a designer's role to spread this power and echo the idea that each and everyone of us are capable of being a designer to a small or large capacity. Therefore, when considering what to call the people who see and interact with my work, I hope to call them designers and creatives as well. I hope they know that this design and creativity isn't something innate, something we are born with. Rather, it's a skill we can build, a voice we can train, a choice we can make. I hope to be equals with those who are seeing my work, collaborators even. Together we can bounce ideas off of one another and work together towards building a better society. With this terminology, my work is no longer a definite truth or should be held in great regard; my work instead becomes a conversation starter, a discussion point, a small piece to a larger whole.