Ever since Interactions 11 happened and I followed the hashtag religiously on twitter, I’ve been kicking around a post in the back of my head about how experiences belong to people, and people vary, and designers can’t actually control end users, and so whenever I have a choice, I’d rather call what I do interaction design than “experience design.”

But the smart people over at Smashing Magazine pulled out the big words and the theory and explained it all way better than I would have. Go forth and read. And remember: people’s experiences are their own. You cannot dictate them. Not in design, not in anything else.

Oh, and I have another half-formed rant about how people are not “materials” that you use to create your design, either. Because they’re people, and you cannot control them. Maybe I’ll concentrate on that one.