“me” vs “you” in user-interface dialogs
Computers, if they are addressing the user, should address the user as “you”, not as “me”.
Computers need, from time to time, to address the user, for example “You have updated your setting successfully”.
Some programs use the word “you” to address the user, some use the word “me” on the grounds that the user is reading it, and to them, they are “me”.
However, using “me” to address someone is ridiculous! That’s as logical as a human using the word “I” or “me” to refer to the recipient of a piece of communication, “hey, do I fancy going to the pub?” on the grounds that, to the recipient, they are “I”.
“me” is the source of communication, “you” is the destination of communication; if a computer is communicating, the user is the recipient of the communication so should be called “you”.
Specifically Gmail is the main culprit for this in my life, it lists conversations between “me, Joe”; having “you, Joe” or “Adrian, Joe” would be much better! Gmail even, on the same screen that it lists conversations between “me” and other people, says “You are using 25% of your 7000MB”, so it’s not even consistent!
How about windows, creating folders like My Photos, My Music etc. I guess this kind of makes sense, if they were created by the user.
Yes! That was the other usage I was thinking of, but couldn’t remember. Nah I disagree; I think one is just used to “My Computer”, but imagine if it was “Your Computer”, surely that would be a lot better?
Don’t get too carried away applying your preferences to all users in general. Microsoft and Google (and other companies) do enormous amounts of research and testing to find what the majority of users will appreciate. Unfortunately, those who can write even a Java “Hello World” program don’t usually make a majority.
Now having said that, it is sorta funny Microsoft removed the “My” prefix from the user folders in Vista.