identified the most desirable
label but failed to accurately set
expectations, thus setting up a
disappointing experience. I can
hear Carlin’s self-satisfied character intoning, “But these aren’t
outtakes, these are minisodes…”
As professionals with titles
on business cards, departments
we deliver to, and professional
organizations to which we seek
legitimizing memberships, we’re
probably quite familiar with the
death spiral of naming just what
it is we do. Maybe you’re fat and
sassy as a “senior interaction
designer,” but pretty soon you’re
going to need to become a “senior
user experience designer,” and
not that long ago you may have
been a “junior human factors
engineer” a “junior interface
designer” or a “usability specialist.” One firm I worked for
insisted on branding the practice
as HID (for Human-Interface
Design), which really was a pretty useless (confusing, nonstandard) branding, especially if we
had to say it out loud. The struggle to respin discipline/depart-
ment/professional organization
nomenclature does very little
beyond giving administrators
something they can sink their
teeth into amidst so much of
the ambiguity that is necessary
given the nature of our work.
Now once we agree with our
hearts, minds, or wallets on a
word that has the right associations, we can be prepared to
have that word jammed down
our throat. When plastic bottles
of drinking water (a disastrously
evil product on several levels)
are presented as green (i.e.,
the Eco-shape™ bottle from
Arrowhead), well, it’s time for
another word: greenwashing.
Or how’s about the latest whipping boy: innovation? Innovation
seems like a valid pursuit and
a value that we want to believe
in, but it’s been overused so
ridiculously that it has lost most
of its meaning. Maybe we need
regulatory controls on buzzwords to keep them at their
original potency once they are
unleashed into the environment.
We’re gradually realizing that
the overuse of antibiotics turns
penicillin into pea soup. But
will we ever clue in that labeling everything from an iPhone
knockoff to a flavor of cupcake
frosting to tire treads as innovative is simply creating tomorrow’s faded, jaded concept (TQM,
anyone?). And if we can’t talk
about it without evoking winces,
we will have a harder time
championing it.
Making the right choices
in terms of wording are often
not obvious. But we should be
mindful of the power that our
choice of language can have on
interactions, whether our goal is
to unblock, inform, inspire, reassure, or influence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve is the
founder of Portigal Consulting, a boutique
agency that helps companies discover
and act on new insights about themselves
and their customers. He is an accomplished instructor and public speaker,
and an avid photographer who curates a
Museum of Foreign Grocery Products in
his home. Steve blogs regularly for All This
ChittahChattah, at www.portigal.com/blog.
DOI: 10.1145/1456202.1456221
© 2009 ACM 1072-5220/09/0100 $5.00