Photo via the Atlantic
Facebook director of product design Margaret Gould Stewart, left. Photo via the Atlantic

Facebook is ousting the term “user” and implementing the word “people” throughout its operations in a new attempt to humanize its product,

The company has also developed an “empathy team” that will help its “engineers and designers understand what it’s actually like to be a user, or a business paying for advertising,” according to Business Insider. The company’s internal dashboards will now read “daily average people” where “user” once existed, according to director of product design Margaret Gould Stewart.

“It’s kind of arrogant to think the only reason people exist is to use what you built,” Gould Stewart said at the Atlantic’s Navigate technology conference last week. “They actually have lives, like, outside the experience they have using your product.”

She later discussed the social network’s move to “show significantly fewer ads” that will be “more valuable and relevant” to Facebook’s audience. You can watch her interview here.

This should be great if it comes to fruition. I, for one, never want to see another Christian Mingle ad again in my life.

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