How would your customers describe it? Say it that way instead.

Are you and your customers on a different planet?

I’m always amazed at how folks refer to their own stuff in so much jargon. But I forget that I have done the same for a long time.

Its hard to get out of our own headspace.

It is always important to understand how your customers see your stuff.

Use their words, not yours.

Apple just made some changes to how they describe emoji.

Apple shows us here that they can avoid this trap by listening to the customer and just asking them what they see when they look at emoji.

🙏 Person With Folded Hands is now Hands Pressed Together in the Apple’s new Mac OS Sierra.

Here are some more examples of the old version of the emoji name -> to the new version from an article I recently read.

  • 👲 Man With Gua Pi Mao -> Man With Chinese Cap
  • 😄 Smiling Face With Open Mouth and Smiling Eyes -> Grinning Face With Squinting Eyes
  • 😤 Face With Look of Triumph -> Huffing With Anger Face
  • 🎅 Father Christmas -> Santa Claus
  • 👿 Imp -> Sad Face With Horns

To the emoji user in the US, these emotions, names, and words make more colloquial sense. Unless you watch Game of Thrones, in which case you hear the word imp quite a bit. 🦁

So listen to how your customers speak, and how they perceive your offerings. Or winter will be coming sooner than you think. ☃️

emoji name switches found via via Unicode Names Replaced in macOS Sierra.