Design your words
On Friday my wife and I met with our doula for the first time. (We are expecting our first child in June!)
One of the first things we did together was review the words we use when we talk about birth-related things.
Her recommendation was we substitute some of the traditional and common ways of saying things for more productive, positive, and accurate ones.
As an example, instead of saying “contraction” which re-enforces the idea of compressing and muscles tightening, she recommended the word “surge” which carries a more natural and momentary connotation.
This not only gives us a more accurate idea of what to expect, it ends up being more productive in the moment. Needless to say we love our new doula and are glad she’s here helping us.
But it also got me thinking about the words I use in my work and how I can find better ones to use.
My favorite example of this is the word “user”. I find it offensive that the startup and design industry constantly refer to people this way.
It’s no wonder our chief export nowadays is addiction and not progress. After all, the only other industry to refer to their customer-base as users is the drug industry.
And this is just one word. There’s countless other examples. So over the weekend I created a spreadsheet with words I fundamentally disagree with.
Help me combat their negativity and unproductiveness by suggesting alternative words we can use to phase out these terms.
Because words have power!
Share it with others!
PS. I just sent out some awesome frontend design gigs today on Folyo. If you need a high-value gig, sign up to land one!
