User Roles

The term "role" is used in a variety of contexts. It refers to the goal relationship someone has with tool or process. Think of a role as a hat a person puts on. Throughout the day, or even moment to moment, a person can change their role as they might change a hat. Their role might change as their goal with respect to the tool or process changes.

Typical roles might be

• Casual browser
• Impatient buyer
• Order taker
• Time tracker
• AP voucher enterer

In these example roles names I've used a "thing-doer" form. The role names all refer to some type of work or activity a person is engaging in with tool or process. Someone wearing the hat of a particular role has the objective of completing that work or activity. Reading a role name tells me what the person is engaged in doing - although not necessarily why.

For "extra credit" I've used the decorated form of "adjectived-thing-doer" such as "Impatient buyer." The adjective tells me a bit about the state of mind of a person engaged in this activity. I can assume an impatient buyer in a store would like to find what they need quickly and leave.

The form of role I'll gravitate to here is from Constantine & Lockwood's Software for Use.

A good role name reflects the goal a user has with respect to the software

For example if I were building a kiosk in a large book store to help people find books I could define roles for the various people who'd use that kiosk. Suppose I have a type of customer who shows up at my book store in a hurry looking to find what they need and get out quickly. I might be tempted to call this kind of person an "impatient buyer." However, the software I'm building doesn't allow it's users to buy - only to find the location of books in my large bookstore. A better name for this role might be "impatient location searcher." Such a role name more accurately reflects the goal with respect to the system.

A person may take on many roles

A user may change roles as they change goals. For example upon finding something interesting in an on-line website a "casual browser" might change to an "impulsive buyer" or a "skeptical comparison shopper."

A variety of actors my fulfill the same role

Within an organization we might find an Accounts Payable Clerk. The clerk may report to an Accounts Payable Manager. Within that organization, those job titles may be significant. If we're writing software to support the Accounts Payable department, that software may support the routine activity of AP voucher entry. That routine activity might be engaged in by both the AP clerk, and the AP manager. A role name like "AP voucher enterer", although it sounds a bit forced, let's us focus on person engaged in this activity - not a job title which may have little baring on that activity.