Triple Bottom Line Usertarianism

As the designers of user interfaces we have an obligation to not only our clients, but our users and their greater working environment.

In practical terms, Triple Bottom Line Usertarianism usually means expanding the traditional user experience framework to take into account not just user and client satisfaction but the overall user-ecology.

Usertarians look beyond the user and at their environment and relationships.

Usertarianism is a broadly inclusive term for the concept that users experiencing software will directly or indirectly affect the nature of their home or working environment – through task accomplishment (aka the Kathy Sierra ‘kick-ass’ factor), increased or decreased stress levels, and time-saving – leading to a positive or negative impact on relationships with work colleagues, friends or family.

In summary – the software we design ultimately becomes part of a users environment… so we’re kind of environmentalists… so we need to practise environmentalism (for users)…

Environmentalism	Usertarianism
Sustainability	User Centred Design
Conservation	Archiving Content in Context
Ecology	Information Architecture
Permaculture	Clustered/Related Content
Organics	Folksonomy
Tree Hugger	Ethnographic Researcher
Fuel Efficiency	Task Efficiency
Carbon Credit	ROI
Recycling	Design Patterns
Wealth Distribution	Accessibility
Save the Whales	Save the (non-proprietary) Internet
Michael Moore	Alan Cooper
Biodiversity	Ubigitous
Kyoto	Kelly Goto

Anti-Environmentalism	Anti-Usertarianism
Urbanisation	Featuristis
Nuclear Power	User Meltdown
Genetic Engineering	Marketing Agenda
Hunting	Spy-Ware
Climate Change	Design by Committee
Peak Oil	Bandwidth
Globalisation	Corporation Centred Design
Garbage	Content Rot
Greed	Cookies
SUVs	Flash Only
WTO	???