Userather

Userather is a neologism used in discussions of user experience and interface design to describe the phenomenon where users express one preference in conversation or surveys but behave differently in actual interaction with a system. The term has no formal definition or standardized usage in academic or professional UX literature, and it is mainly employed to flag potential gaps between what users say they want and how they actually use a product.

Origin and usage contexts are informal; the word appears in design critiques and online forums as a blended form of “user” and “rather.” In practice, it can refer to either the general tendency for stated preferences to diverge from observed behavior, or to a hypothetical user scenario in which the stated preference would lead to a different action under real conditions.

Applications in UX practice often involve cautionary notes in survey design and product testing. Researchers may reference userather to emphasize the importance of corroborating survey or interview data with behavioral metrics, such as analytics, A/B testing, or usability observations, to avoid over-reliance on stated preferences.

Examples are typically brief and illustrative rather than prescriptive, such as noting that users say they prefer a minimal interface but frequently switch to a more complex layout during task completion.

See also: stated preference, revealed preference, UX research, usability testing, behavioral economics. While it is a recognizable term in some design discussions, userather is not widely standardized and should be interpreted within the context of informal UX critique.