Terminology question: I'm looking for a concise term to describe "the vast majority of computer users, who do not particularly care about or are interested in computers, beyond how they can serve as a tool for their needs."
"Non-technical users" isn't quite right, because it's not necessarily a competence issue, and there's more tech than computers anyway. "Average users" also isn't quite right, since I'm specifically looking to include those who have above-average difficulty in dealing with computers. "Normal users" also doesn't quite work, because it implies abnormality on the other side.
Are there any better terms to use?
@tfiebig It's the closest I'm aware of as well, but some folks object to the term "users" in general (and there are some decent reasons for that!) so I'm hoping to find some less obvious options :)
@joepie91 @tfiebig victims 😂
But in more seriousness, just "workers"? We don't generally invent separate words for people who use jackhammer or a bandsaw or a pencil. It's a tool, working in their trade involves using that tool, with all the issues that the whole industry creating those tools brought upon us.
@viq @tfiebig Well, that's the tricky part; I'm looking for a not-very-contextual word, that can be applied in a wide range of circumstances to refer to "the people who would end up using this thing for some purpose, but may not care about its workings" :)
Essentially a general-purpose replacement for "users" or "end-users", without the philosophical implications that that has, for the cases where no more specific term is readily available.
@joepie91 @tfiebig in corporate environments people who will use a thing, even if exclusively internal to the company, are sometimes called clients. But, uh, maybe just "people using this"?
I guess you could also try looking what kind of vocabulary orgs like Mozilla or Signal or Vivaldi use - they have departments or at least people dealing with this, and I think try to keep such things in mind.
@joepie91 @viq If that conditional ("would end up") is relevant to the definition, why not "target audience"? Yeah, reeks of marketing, but puts the ball of definition on you specificying "who I want to use" ("everyone") vs the other terms that carry self-dividing baggage with them (see: "power users").
That said IMO the adequate term is "final users", because it *can* carry the explicit meaning of "end-users, be they following the intent (or training, etc) or not".
That said, for ""the vast majority of computer users, who do not particularly care about or are interested in computers, beyond how they can serve as a tool for their needs."", if the emphasized part is they do not care and only see a tool, historically the term has been "lusers". /shrug
@joepie91
Might be too generic for your needs, but I like "laypeople" - it's a rare case where it works the same in other fields. It doesn't mean clueless or unintelligent, just not an expert in a particular subject matter.
You recognize a good science writer the same way you do good UX: presenting content in a way accessible to the layperson without dumbing it down more than necessary
@joepie91 end-users ; At least that is what I usually use.