The end of users

Over the past 20 years, user interface designers and usability engineers have studied and refined human-computer interaction techniques with the goal of improving people's productivity and experience. But the target of these efforts, "the end-user," is fast becoming a thing of the past. Many people now construct software on their own, building artifacts that range from email filters to spreadsheet simulations to interactive web applications. These individuals are use-developers: they build ad hoc solutions to everyday computing needs.Will use-developers help to resolve the software crisis? Given the right tools, people and groups may be able to rapidly develop custom solutions to many context-specific computing requirements, eliminating the wait for IT professionals to analyze and engineer a solution. Or are these individuals a danger to society? Use-developers are informal programmers with no training in software construction methods or computing paradigms. They have little intrinsic motivation to test their products for even basic concerns like correctness or safety. In this talk I argue that the transformation of end-user to use-developer is well underway and discuss the prospects for maximizing the benefits to society while addressing the risks.