In fact, we do pay taxes behind the scenes and expect somebody to properly distribute it behind our backs.

Many people use Credit cards because it’s easier to slide the money across the counter. From $2 to $2000. Ease of use is a huge factor.

As for your point about Squidoo (and thank you for using a concrete example- it benefits the audience to have a clearer focus of what we’re talking about), what was your motivation for trying the service in the first place? I’ll bet if it was really high, it was a legitimate felt need for you, you’d have been far more willing to put up with friction in the process. Chances are, it wasn’t, and the experience wasn’t optimal, so you bailed. That’s my larger point (and issue with many IA’s perspective)- the web is a gravity-less environment. Your personal motivation is what fuels your ongoing momentum. Reducing the friction (or planning an optimal experience with as little friction as possible) is great, and is always worth striving for… but should not be expected to deliver an audience that’s willing/motivated to take action- that’s a job for persuasion (and marketing, sales and communication).

@Andrew- “user group” applies just fine… in the world of software tools, something I’ll argue vehemently the internet is most definitely NOT. I also have a hard time crediting customer-centric empathy from the profession who so easily coined the terms Master and Slave.

On your earlier point about “plumbers” moving the needle faster than persuaders, it’s a wise observation however worth noting it’s reflective of how low the bar is currently set. Sad, after transacting business online as long as we have.

On a separate note … no positive connotations for the term “user”? What about this: http://www.computeruser.com/about/indexabout.html

And all of the 100’s of (albeit legacy) acronymic fellowships ending in “UG” – all those local computer “user groups”. User is in fact more open-ended and supportive of the Internet as an interactive user interface, than the explicitly transactional concept of “consumer,” IMHO.

Howard, who do you think are the individuals best equipped to understand a user’s wants, needs, desires, and emotional states?

Hint, it’s not one person and often times it’s not a marketer (though marketers are no doubt part of the process). Designers, ethnographers and planners who understand not only brand strategies—but the intricacies of human behavior are often times the ones who help bridge insight with experience. I’m not excluding marketers—point in case, Seth is beyond brilliant and certainly understands how people think.

But also point in case, I still have a hard time using Squidoo and I’m still not sure exactly how it works—though the service may be doing fine, I abandoned the lens creation process because I couldn’t make sense of it. So I guess this is where a deep dive in user experience plays a part. The lines are blurring for sure (and I talk about this all the time) but I don’t always find marketers to be the best designers or “experience people”. When the rubber actually hits the road. Marketers didn’t design the iPhone. Designers did,and marketing helped deliver the story. Actually, together the software, hardware, distribution, service and marketing all tell the complete story—but the interface is still created by planners and designers from a variety of backgrounds (my guess).

PS, I just posted the results from my Poll.