User

Full Title or Meme

The Subject of a transaction with a web site. Nearly all web sites assume that the user is a natural person and some use Turing Tests of some sort to verify that it is a natural person.

Context

• Depending on the context the User can be a natural individual, also known as a Carbon-based Life Form, or a Legal Person, which will be either a Business or Government.
• Typically the term User is likely to be limited to Carbon-based Life Forms, and the term the term Subject is more generally applied.
• The term User Experience will always be used to indicate a Carbon-based Life Form operating with some sort of User Agent on a device.

Goals

• User control
• Reliance

Problems

• As a general rule, centralized databases are more efficient and effective, which makes
• Usages of the terms related to the subject of an interchange are not consistent, even within a single document, so caution is advised.

Solutions

See C2B and C2G for descriptions of interactions of the user with Business or Government.

References

Alternate terms for the User are Consumer, Subject, and Principal which terms have slightly different connotations.