supposedintended

Supposedintended is a neologism used in discussions of technology, design, and public policy to refer to the notion of the supposed or stated intended use of a product, feature, or rule, as claimed by its designers or marketers, as opposed to how users actually employ it. The term blends supposed and intended to emphasize that claims of intended use may be prescriptive rather than empirical. It is not an established term in formal standards and appears primarily in informal online discourse and critiques as a shorthand for examining the alignment between intended and actual behavior.

In practice, referring to the supposedintended use helps analysts consider whether designs implicitly steer behavior, whether disclosures match practice, and how misalignment can lead to safety risks, ethical concerns, or unintended consequences. For instance, a product marketed as a privacy tool may have features that enable data sharing under certain conditions; researchers discuss the supposedintended use to evaluate whether marketing messages align with real-world outcomes.

Etymology: a compound of supposed and intended; a coined term rather than an official classification. See also intended use, unintended consequences, design intent, and user behavior.

Limitations: since it is informal, its meaning can vary across contexts; relying on it without clarifying the exact claimed use can be misleading.