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Everything a user interacts with is technically theirs, but would “my” or “your” make more sense? More often than not, we prefer neither.

Read John Saito’s excellent post for a summary of the issue.

Hudl’s stance on how to orient a UI toward users’ content, features, etc., goes like this:

  • By default, remain neutral (i.e., don’t say “your” or “my” or use any possessive pronoun) if possible. This should work at least 80% of the time.
  • If some form of pronoun is required based on evidence (e.g., convincing qual/quant data), use “your” (e.g., Your Playbook). This should cover you another 19% of the time.
  • If the previous options fail to provide adequate clarity, “my” could be considered, but consult Design Ops before moving forward.

This, That, These and Those

These/those are the plural forms of this/that and behave in the same way. This is used to identify a nearby person, thing or experience. That refers to the more distant of two things or a specific thing previously mentioned.

If you need to refer to an element on the same screen, use “this” and “these” (e.g., “No results found for these filters.”).