I've always thought there was something condescending about "My" stuff. Like, I need this page to tell me where my stuff is so I don't edit someone else's. Or something.
Yours vs. Mine
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Re: Yours vs. Mine
#12in some cases couldn't you design the app not to mention "your" vs "mine" and just say "user profile" or profile? just a thought. very interesting commentary on the connotations of the usage of "your profile" "my profile' nonetheless.
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Why should an app have a personality? Apps should 'do', not 'be'. In my opinion, the user shouldn't ever notice the interface, because its only purpose is to facilitate the service; anything that disrupts the purpose (like a 'personality') is distracting from what it's supposed to do.
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#13I like the explanation of terms, but come to a different conclusion. Rather than a universal my/yours I would think it ends up being whatever is appropriate to the interface. Some interfaces are for tasks that require "tools" others not.
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#14This is really the kind of thing where A/B testing is both necessary and straightforward. Decently intuitive arguments can be made for both sides and there isn't really overwhelming strength on either of them.
What, pray tell, is the hypothesis to be tested? Whether "my" or "your" results in more clicks? How do we know they aren't clicks borne of confusion? Whether "my" or "your" users visit the site more often? Over what time frame? A day? A week? A year? A decade?
A/B testing isn't magic fairy dust that settles design questions. You need to have a clear hypothesis to test. It's especially difficult if the design question concerns long-term perceptions and psychology. An A/B test in this situation is anything but straightforward.
I'd be interested to learn about how this design decision was made in the companies that have had to face it.
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#15Is there really any effect or difference between using either?
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Why should an app have a personality? Apps should 'do', not 'be'. In my opinion, the user shouldn't ever notice the interface, because its only purpose is to facilitate the service; anything that disrupts the purpose (like a 'personality') is distracting from what it's supposed to do.
Good point. Except for games or kids apps, the ui should get out of the way and have no personality. It should have some identity though, so we can tell apps apart, but a logo and a color scheme is enough usually.
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#17I am pretty sure I saw "Pull to refresh" before it was used in tweetie, but I cant remember where - Anyone have better memory than me?
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#18I have to say I disagree with the author's value assertion. It may true that people do treat computer interfaces in a social way, but whether this is useful (for many difference definitions of useful) is clearly open to debate. I wrote a paper about this a few years ago that pins the popularity of the idea of the computer as interactive artifact on Lucy Suchman and her work Plans and Situated Actions. The relevant paragraph is here: http://peermore.com/astool.html#nid21T (take off the fragment for the whole paper).
If we're actually having some kind of debate about how to signifiy in an interface I'd probably choose "profile" and forego "my" and "your" as they imply a relationship that does not exist and a facility in the interface that is not possible.
Given that most people aren't actually concerned about that and just want their stuff to be "nice" or "friendly" I'd pick one of "your" or "my", whichever fit in the grammar of the rest of the system, and be consistent.
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#19Interfaces and marketing that use "my" always irk me by, for lack of a better phrase, coming on too strong. I'm all too aware of the human hands that typed out that button label - it seems damned impudent of them to be assuming my voice. It implies a certain intimacy. My cart sounds like an appropriate label for something I've filled, but so long as it's empty trying to foist it off as mine just comes across as a desperate plea for emotional investment.
I think marketeers leveraging "my" tend to envision that we will come to think of their product as like some treasured childhood teddy bear that we hug firmly to our bosoms each night. In life though, when we talk about owning things - my this, my that - it's often in order to identity ourselves with them. For most services, that's a lot to assume. Treading the HN path of avoiding possessive determiners at all may be the wiser path.
Re: Yours vs. Mine
#20This is really the kind of thing where A/B testing is both necessary and straightforward. Decently intuitive arguments can be made for both sides and there isn't really overwhelming strength on either of them.
What, pray tell, is the hypothesis to be tested? Whether "my" or "your" results in more clicks? How do we know they aren't clicks borne of confusion? Whether "my" or "your" users visit the site more often? Over what time frame? A day? A week? A year? A decade? A/B testing isn't magic fairy dust that settles design questions. You need to have a clear hypothesis to test. It's especially difficult if the design question…
Reduce how often users click back or cancel or close after attempting the action (I.e. to attempt to make them abort the action less often).