Is this my interface or yours?

There’s no standard way to refer to things that belong to you within an interface. Some say it’s ‘my stuff’, others say it’s ‘your stuff’.

There’s a subtle difference between an interface written from the user’s point of view and the product’s point of view. It depends on how you want your users to feel while using your product.

‘My’ point of view

Using ‘my’ implies the product is an extension of the user. It feels personal, and you can customize and control it. Thus, ‘my’ is more appropriate when you want to emphasize privacy, personalization, or ownership.

‘Your’ point of view

‘Your’ implie the product is talking with you, like your personal assistant, helping you get something done. ‘Your’ might be more appropriate when you want your product to sound conversational.

No point of view

Nowadays, many products simply cut out words like ‘my’ or ‘your’ whenever labeling things that belong to the user. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work all the time. For eg, In Youtube, you can’t just say ‘Channel’ cos you won’t know what channel you’re referring to.

Putting it all into perspective

General guidelines:

‘Me’: Use I, me, my, or mine when theuser is interacting with the product. But only add these words when you absolutely need to for clarity.

‘You’: Use you or your when your product is asking questions, giving instructions, or describing things to the user — imagine what a personal assistant might say.

‘Our’ point of view

‘we’, ‘our’, or ‘us’ suggest that there are real human beings behind the product. It adds a human touch, and can help the user feel a little more at ease if your product is selling people-powered services.

For automated tools (Google search) however, ‘we’ can feel misleading. Google’s UI writing guidelines recommend not saying ‘we’ for most things in their interface.