user
a person who makes use of a thing; someone who uses or employs something
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a person as a user of a particular thing, assess that use relationship, and determine appropriate assistance or intervention.
A user is a person who makes use of a thing for some purpose, a relational role that does not by itself imply ownership, purchase, employment, or authorization.
It can be Establish or revise a person's user relationship from attributed evidence of use.; Identify the relevant task and offer assistance adapted to the person's circumstances.; Check action-specific access conditions before facilitating use.; Record barriers and propose accessible ways to perform the intended task.; Compare intended and experienced outcomes to identify support needs.; Recognise paused or ended use and update the relationship without inferring deletion of accounts or ownership..
Distinguishing features
A user must be identifiable in relation to something they use; being a person alone does not establish the role.
Ownership, payment or account possession does not by itself demonstrate use, and use need not involve any of them.
The referent is a person in a use relationship, not the account, device or automated process through which activity is recorded.
Use may be occasional, unpaid or outside employment, so the role does not imply an occupation.
Receiving an effect or benefit does not alone establish use; the person's participation in employing the thing must be clarified.
Scope
+ The relationship between a person and the particular thing they use
+ Actual use, its context and its temporal state
+ The user's purposes, tasks and degree of control over use
+ Capabilities, accessibility needs and assistance relevant to use
+ Access conditions, responsibilities and consequences arising from use
- The person's complete identity, biography or employment record
- The used thing's internal design, composition and maintenance lifecycle
- Accounts, credentials and automated service identities as independent entities
- Purchase, ownership and subscription relationships except where they affect use
- Occupation classifications and professional licensing systems
- People merely affected by a thing without using it
Characteristics
- Used thing
- Reference to the thing used, with the relevant component or version when needed Anchors the role to a specific relationship rather than treating user as a permanent personal identity.
- Use evidence
- Observed use, person-reported use, third-party-reported use, inferred use, unknown Separates supported recognition of a user from assumptions based on accounts or purchases.
- Use relationship state
- Current, intermittent, paused, former, uncertain; evaluated over a stated period Prevents historical use from being mistaken for current involvement.
- Purpose of use
- Person's stated or explicitly inferred goals and associated tasks Supports assistance based on what the person is trying to accomplish.
- Use frequency
- Use episodes per stated time interval, with an episode definition Distinguishes occasional from repeated use without assuming universal activity thresholds.
- Participation mode
- Direct, assisted, mediated, mixed, unresolved Helps distinguish the person using a thing from someone operating it on their behalf.
- Task-specific capability
- Independent, assistance needed, unable under current conditions, unassessed Guides support without assigning a single competence level to the whole person.
- Use authority
- Permitted, conditional, disputed, prohibited, unknown for a specified action and context Separates evidence that use occurs from evidence that a particular action is allowed.
- Choice over use
- Voluntary, required, constrained, mixed, unknown Avoids interpreting continued use as preference or satisfaction.
- Experienced outcome
- Goal achieved, partly achieved, not achieved, adverse outcome reported, unknown; multiple values may apply Connects support decisions to the user's results rather than activity alone.
Analytical facets
- substance
- social
- origin
- conceptual
- agency
- inert
- mobility
- not-applicable
- scale
- not-applicable
- affordances
- observable
Also called
+84
Where this came from
oewn:2024 · CC BY 4.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 15 findings · 25 questions.
Person-thing use Establishes who uses what and what supports that attribution.
User is a relational role that cannot be established from a person or an account in isolation.
Role anchor
Identifies the person and the object of use at the necessary granularity.
Anchored use relationship
Record the person as user of a specified thing, distinguishing the person from identifiers and access mechanisms.
- Which person uses which thing, and does the relationship concern the whole thing or a particular part? definition
- Does the available identifier represent one person, several people sharing access, or an automated process? boundary
Use attribution
Examines the evidence that the person actually employs the thing.
Evidence of personal use
Keep the basis and uncertainty of attribution explicit rather than equating registration, ownership or payment with use.
- What observation or report establishes that this person used the thing, and when? provenance
- Could the recorded activity instead belong to another person, shared access or automation? boundary
Purpose and participation Explains what the person seeks to accomplish and how they participate.
The same thing can serve different user purposes, and assistance depends on the user's actual involvement.
Goals and tasks
Relates use to the person's intended result.
User-defined purpose
Distinguish purposes stated by the person from purposes inferred by an agent or prescribed by a provider.
- What result does the person want from using this thing? definition
- Was that purpose stated by the person or inferred from activity or another party's expectations? provenance
Participation and choice
Captures direct, assisted or mediated involvement and constraints on participation.
Control over use
Record what the person does themselves, what others do for them, and whether they can choose to stop or change the means used.
- Which parts of employing the thing does the person perform, direct or receive assistance with? boundary
- Can the person decline, stop or choose an alternative, and what constrains those choices? action
Use over time Tracks episodes, recurrence and changes in the use relationship.
A past interaction or an inactive account cannot alone determine whether someone is a current user.
Episodes and recurrence
Defines meaningful units of use for the particular thing.
Bounded use episodes
Record when use occurs with an explicit episode definition and observation window.
- What counts as one use episode for this thing and task? definition
- How often and for how long did the person use it within the observed period? measurement
Relationship transitions
Distinguishes ongoing, intermittent, paused and ended use.
Current use status
Assess relationship state from contextual evidence without treating missing observations as proof that use ended.
- What evidence supports classifying this person's use as current, intermittent, paused or former? provenance
- What confirmation is needed before updating the relationship to ended use? action
Capability and access Determines whether and under what conditions the person can carry out intended use.
Practical ability and permission are separate conditions, and both can vary by task.
Usable task conditions
Captures task-specific skills, barriers and assistance requirements.
Capability in context
Assess the interaction between the person's capabilities, the task and the conditions of use rather than attributing every difficulty to the person.
- Which intended tasks can the person complete independently under the present conditions? measurement
- What instruction, adaptation or assistance would address the barriers they encounter? action
Permission and responsibility
Relates specific proposed uses to applicable authority and obligations.
Action-specific authority
Record the basis and limits of permission separately from actual use, account access and ownership.
- What rule, agreement or responsible party establishes permission for this person to perform the proposed use? provenance
- Which conditions or responsibilities must be satisfied before an agent assists with that action? action
Outcomes and user support Connects use to experienced results and appropriate follow-up.
Activity alone does not show that use served the person's purpose or that continued use is desirable.
Experienced results
Assesses task outcomes and the person's account of their experience.
Goal attainment and burden
Record whether use achieved the intended result and what effort, difficulty or adverse effects the person experienced.
- Did the person achieve their intended result, and what evidence supports that assessment? measurement
- What benefits, burdens or adverse effects does the person report, separately from observed activity? provenance
Support and adjustment
Identifies appropriate assistance or changes in how use proceeds.
User-directed next step
Relate proposed assistance to the person's purpose, preferences, authority and unresolved barriers.
- Would guidance, an adaptation, another means of meeting the goal or stopping use best address the person's stated need? action
- Which proposed steps may the agent take under existing authority, and which require the person's decision? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- This covers the general person-who-uses sense, not specifically a computer user or a person who uses drugs.
- User is a relational role rather than an occupation; no general qualification, licence, or universal identifier is implied.
- The listed kinds overlap, and thresholds for novice, experienced, occasional, and frequent depend on context.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of user this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- End user
- Novice user
- Experienced user
- Occasional user
- Frequent user
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of user this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Identifying whose needs and activities a product or service must support.
- Observing use to assess usability, accessibility, and suitability for a task.
- Planning instructions, training, and support for people with different levels of experience.
- Distinguishing people who use something from those who purchase, own, or administer it.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of user this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Treating the purchaser or owner as necessarily the person who uses the thing.
- Equating an account with a person, despite shared accounts and people holding multiple accounts.
- Assuming all users have the same abilities, experience, goals, or conditions of use.
- Attributing difficulties solely to user error without examining design, instructions, or context.
- Assuming use establishes permission or competence.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of user this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- person - Person identifies the individual; user identifies that individual through a relationship of use to something.
- customer - A customer purchases or obtains goods or services; a user makes use of them, whether or not they are the customer.
- owner - An owner holds ownership rights; a user may use something owned by someone else.
- operator - An operator runs or controls equipment or a system; use need not involve operating or controlling it.
- end user - An end user uses the resulting product or service for its intended practical purpose; user also covers other relationships of use.
- user account - A user account is a system record or access identity, not the person who uses the system.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of user this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Does an existing Vercy world model already own the general person-thing use relationship, requiring this registry entry to link to it?
- Where should the boundary of use fall for passive consumption, indirect beneficiaries and people whose representatives operate a thing for them?
- How should prospective and first-time users be represented before evidence of actual use exists?
- Which thing-specific criteria should distinguish current, intermittent and former use when activity is sparse or unobservable?
- What minimum evidence can establish and support a person's use relationship without collecting unnecessary identity or behavioural data?