User

“ the user, or, in other words, the master, of the house will be even a better judge than the builder, just as the pilot will judge better of a rudder than the carpenter, and the guest will judge better of a feast than the cook. ”

“ So I want to give you some thoughts and some examples from other communities and products, about what good and bad user experience can do, and then talk about why we technologists usually don't put enough investment into user experience, and what we can do to fix that. ”

“ Now, there should evidently be neither one nor the other of these, although we cannot allow the personal convenience of a single user to be the test—our system should not exist for itself alone, nor should we try to get along without system altogether. ”

“ However, this booklet should provide enough information to make the incredible breadth and complexity of the Internet a mite less imposing. Coupled with some exploration and experimentation, every user has the potential to be a competent net citizen, using the facilities that are available to their fullest. ”

“ Tolerance is provided for holes, which ordinary standard reamers can produce, in two grades, Classes A and B, the selection of which is a question for the user's decision and dependent upon the quality of the work required ”

“ But if you can’t measure people and you can’t ask them, what does that leave? Well, good old-fashioned experience. As is usually true in life, there’s no shortcut around incompetence; at some point, you just need genuine ability. When it comes to pleasing users, this generally has two parts: First, you need the basic skill of empathy, the ability to put yourself in a user’s shoes and see things through their eyes. ”

“ Every tool provides its users with a particular manner of seeing the world and specific ways of interacting with others. It is important for each of us to consider the biases of various technologies and to seek out those that reflect our values and aspirations. ”

“ And you can learn and exercise your empathy skills as well. If you have a sequential learning style where you prefer a structured approach, take a course in conflict resolution. If you want something more self-study, read novels and blogs written by people with lives very different from yours. And at your own institution, watch real users use your library and your library's digital services -- patrons and colleagues. ”

“ Even seasoned users find themselves surprised when they discover a new service or feature that they'd never known even existed. Once acquainted with the terminology and sufficiently comfortable with making occasional mistakes, the learning process will drastically speed up. ”

“ Reputable use is fixed, not by the practice of those whom A or B deems the best speakers or writers, but by the practice of those whom the world deems the best,—those who are in the best repute, not indeed as to thought, but as to expression, the manner of communicating thought. ”

“ Good Use.—It appears, therefore, that words and phrases, in order to be proper expressions for use in English prose, (1) must be in common use at the present time; (2) they must be used, and used in the same sense, in every part of the country, and in every class and profession; (3) they must be expressions used by writers and speakers of established reputation. In other words, our expressions must be in present, national, and reputable use. Expressions which fulfil these three conditions are said to be in good use. ”

“ WORDS NOT IN GOOD USE
“Every language contains a large stock of words that are not in good prose use. Among these may be mentioned archaisms or obsolete words” (Vide Gardiner, Kitredge and Arnold Manual of Composition and Rhetoric, p 347 and 349)
“Good Use is the use, or general practice at, present of good writers and speakers--the best if we could find them. From this definition it follows, that you should put yourself in the way of hearing and reading good speakers and writers in order to become familiar with their general practice. ”

“ But unless I greatly mistake the trend of thought, its course among educated people is nearly at an end. And if those who stand nearest the people in the pulpit, press, and on the platform, will be careful in their use of terms, the better thought and usage will soon prevail. ”

“ And this topic is so common, that if it is well handled in this cause it is likely to be of great weight in convincing the hearers. And there is another topic, by means of which the magnitude of the service done is demonstrated with very great amplification, by reference to the usefulness, or honourableness, or necessity of the action. And there is a third topic, by means of which the matter which is expressed in words is placed before the eyes of those men who are the hearers ”

“ I have endeavoured in my communications from private life not to overstep the bounds which a sense of honour and delicacy prescribed; nor to introduce anything which it would be undesirable to publish, either as regarded confidential communication or the names of individuals. I am deeply sensible of the requirements of delicacy in this respect ”

“ Do not lecture but try to dramatize your merchandise.
The highest use of language is pure self-expression. Only your choice of words and expression can give your customer kinship with what you feel. An encyclopedia of information is not of itself complete customer service when you are dealing with style, period, color, harmony, and satisfaction. ”

“ Conversation and Good Use.—Good use cannot be determined solely by observing the conversation of our associates; for the chances are that they use many local expressions, some slang, and possibly some vulgarisms. "You often hear it" is not proof that an expression is in good use. ”

“ So clearly is the personality of the control brought out, in the best cases, so clear also are the statements of the communicators that the control who is kindly transmitting their messages is a real person, that I am disposed to accept their assertions, and to regard a control, when not a mere mischievous and temporary impersonation, as akin on their side to the person whom we call a medium on ours. ”

“ The term “use,” moreover, “is from the Latin utor, which means ‘to use, make use of, avail one’s self of, employ, apply, enjoy, etc.” J. Lewis, Law of Eminent Domain §165, p. 224, n. 4 (1888) (hereinafter Lewis) . ”

“ For here let me set before the judicious Reader certain pertinent remarks by the pious and well known author of a popular treatise upon the Right Use of Reason,—a treatise which has been much read to little purpose. That author observes that “those writers and speakers, whose chief business is to amuse or delight, to allure, terrify or persuade mankind, do not confine themselves to any natural order, but in a cryptical or hidden method, adapt every thing to their designed ends. ”

“ This is probably the first time in history that these exact circumstances—especially in regard to personnel—have come together. Consider, please, the ingredients: a real and bitter grievance, victims willing and anxious to take drastic action, a sympathetic telepath who is also an expert in shorthand, a master linguist, and, above all, a director or programmer—you—both able and willing to fit the parts together so that they work. ”

“ For which reason, I am not afraid to insert herein several private articles, which will spend their use amongst the men now living, AND THAT CONCERN THE PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE OF SOME WHO WILL SEE FURTHER INTO THEM THAN THE COMMON READER.' But that the inner reading of these private articles—that reading which lay farther in—to which he invites the attention of those whom it concerns—was not expected to spend its use among the men then living, that which follows might seem to imply. ”

“ Such being the character of the New American Cyclopædia, an accurate, fresh, impartial, complete, practical, interesting, convenient, cheap Dictionary of General Knowledge, we ask, who can afford to do without it? Can the merchant, the statesman, the lawyer, the physician, the clergyman, to whom it gives thorough and complete information on every point connected with their several callings? Can the teacher, who is enabled, by the outside information it affords, to make his instructions doubly interesting and profitable? ”

“ For what is capable of use in the hands of some persons, is capable, in the hands of others, of the opposite of use, called commonly "from-use," or "ab-use." And it depends on the person, much more than on the article, whether its usefulness or ab-usefulness will be the quality developed in it. ”

“ Active Voice, which is the Typical or Direct Expression of Action, is the Agent or Actor in the performance of the given Action. To be an agent is to act; and to act is to exhibit an effect, the Cause of which resides in the Agent. Agent and Cause are thus identified. In other words, the Nominative Case, in the Active Transitive Locution, is the type and illustration of the Sub-Category, Cause, in the Group of Relation, as conceived by the great German metaphysician. ”

“ Pay an attention also to your looks and your gesture, when talking even on the most trifling subjects: things appear very different according as they are expressed, looked and delivered.
Now, if it is necessary to attend so particularly to our manner of speaking, it is much more so with regard to the matter. Fine turns of expression, a genteel and correct style, are ornaments as requisite to common sense, as polite behaviour and an elegant address are to common good manners; they are great assistants in the point of pleasing. ”

“ This mysterious "agent," as people call it for want of a better word, can be produced in the easiest fashion, and some of its ways studied with the simplest kind of apparatus, constructed of articles that lie close at hand. ”

“ And it will be derived from the divisions of honour and usefulness, concerning which we will give rules when we lay down a system of deliberations. And if we compare the definition given by our adversaries with our own definition, and prove our own to be true, and honourable, and useful, and theirs to be entirely different. But we shall seek out things like them in an affair of either greater, or less, or equal importance, from which our description will be proved. ”

“ And, finally, if the desire to please is the aim of good manners, the guide, or test, or norm is common usage or custom, which no less than reason furnishes the laws of courtesy, and which in a sense may be said to be the equivalent in manners of what duty is in morals. ”

“ But amongst the great variety of affections or principles of action in our nature, some in their primary intention and design seem to belong to the simple or private, others to the public or social capacity. ”

“ When I get around to evolving a definition of education I think I shall say that it is the process of furnishing people with resources for profitable and pleasant conversation. Why, those four rules just oozed into the talk, without any sort of flutter or formality, and made our chat both agreeable and fruitful. ”

“ I have given the name of brain-tappers to the literary operatives who address persons whose names are well known to the public, asking their opinions or their experiences on subjects which are at the time of general interest. They expect a literary man or a scientific expert to furnish them materials for symposia and similar articles, to be used by them for their own special purposes. Sometimes they expect to pay for the information furnished them; at other times, the honor of being included in a list of noted personages who have received similar requests is thought sufficient compensation. ”

“ We must have an intellectual quality in all property and in all action, or they are nought. I must have children, I must have events, I must have a social state and history, or my thinking and speaking want body or basis. ”

“ The efforts and influences generally balance themselves so evenly that the net result is generally independent of any single personality. What governs all these efforts in the end is the interest, which the general reader will take in the particular matter in question and by the general reader, I mean in this connection, those particular readers, who habitually look out for any special news or discussion on any named subject. ”

“ But, in addition to these specialized responses, there is a large mass of responses that are common to every member of the social group. We must all be able to communicate with one another, both through the medium of speech, and through the medium of written and printed symbols. ”

“ That the mannerisms and eccentricities of a 'control' (or secondary personality) are interesting, and may be instructive; at any rate they exhibit to a novice the kind of thing to be expected.
4. A number of inquiries want to know—and I think properly want to know—what a sitting is like, what kind of subjects are talked about, what the 'communicators'—i.e. the hypothetical personalities who send messages through the 'control'—have to say about their own feelings and interests and state of existence generally. ”

“ A word or even a phrase which has been used among the most refined circles, will, sometimes, by a sudden freak of fashion, from being caricatured in a farce or song, or from some other cause, go entirely out of use. Nothing but habitual intercourse with people of refinement and education, and mingling in general society, will teach a gentleman what words to use and what to avoid. ”

“ He might mingle with society for years, slowly acquiring the correct table manners, the correct mode of address, the correct manner of making introductions, the correct way to conduct himself at all times, in all places. ”

“ These lessons are of the highest value with regard to all employments of the human mind; for the mode in which words in common use acquire their meaning, approaches far more nearly to the Method of 177 Type than to the method of definition. The terms which belong to our practical concerns, or to our spontaneous and unscientific speculations, are rarely capable of exact definition. ”