There is no End User
That is the revelation that hit me a couple of days ago. There is no End User in Information Flow (which is a term I am using a lot these days, along with "Bottom-Up Knowledge Management"). It took a 1997 presentation to tell me this.
In the article I'm currently writing for Digital Web Magazine, I mention that in the mid-90's websites were designed for "viewers", or an "audience" - which is broadcasting terminology. However since the turn of the century, it's been all about Users Users Users. We're supposed to design websites for "customers" or people who will "use" them.
Nowadays, weblogs and wikis are all about reading and writing. It's a constant flow and information doesn't have a destination. There is no End User.
When we write and publish, we may well be targeting a group of people who will use our content in a specific way. That's certainly still true of most corporate websites and intranets. Maybe some weblogs too. But weblogs are also perhaps showing the way it will be in the future. With weblogs, our readers don't just "use" information - they re-mix it, add to it, edit it, comment on it, dis it, transform it, link it, pass it on, etc. The word "use" doesn't really do justice to all these activities. Don't you think? I'd be interested in your feedback.
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Ah, but there is one thing you are forgetting - human laziness.
While it is true that the interactive media landscape of the Internet today varies sharply from the one-way, read-only nature of TV/radio/newspaper, the majority of Internet users are just that - non-participating eyeballs. Lurkers, in Usenet parlance. People just can't be bothered.
In my blog, I have had over 3,000 "users" and only 25 "participants". For most people on the web, they suffer in an echo chamber consisting of one's self.
The end user is meant to denote the person interacting with the software, the person who is trying to use the software to accomplish a task. In that case, as long as your software has a human interface there is an end user.
The idea that information is a one way flow from 'official' source to consumer is, I agree, dated. But that has nothing to do with end users and user-centric design.
I suspect that everything looks like a nail when you've just bought a shiny new hammer. I'm new to blogging, but from my outsiders perspective, which I still retain, the world of blogging has had zero impact in the world at large. The only general exception I can think of is Amazon reviews.
I can see the amount of two way dialogue increasing where it's appropriate, but only where it's appropriate. If I'm commissioning a house, then I need a dialogue with my architect; the architect and I work in collaboration. If I'm buying groceries, then I just want to be in and out as fast as possible; I definitely see myself as an end user.