"My account" or "Your account" labels

Question

I have somewhat of a strange question that is not really technical, but I do hope to collect meaningful advice.

I'm building a large web application, basically a photo sharing community site. As part of this site, logged-in users can go to their profile, from which they can see their own things (images, comments, votes) as well as edit their details and preferences. Users can also see profiles of others users (their images, comments, votes), but of course not edit their details.

The question I have is simple but it keeps bothering me: What to call the personal links and content of a user? Should they be named "Your":

Your images
Your profile ...

...or "My":

My images
My profile

...or perhaps named, even if you're logged in:

Fledder's images
Fledder's profile

As unimportant as it may sounds, I'm really looking for advice in this area. I'm particularly interested in any standards, why an option is preferred, and in which contexts it is preferred.

Answer 1

Imagine it from the user's perspective as they're reading it, and IMHO "My..." is best. That relates to me rather than "Your..." which when the user reads it doesn't naturally relate to themselves, and "Fledder's..." is like talking about yourself in third person.

Hence, I go for "My..."

Answer 2

Why not just Images or Profile by themselves?

Answer 3

Whenever you're in doubt about something like this, turn to the big boys.

Take a look at Yahoo!. They have "My Yahoo", which is a personalized homepage. YouTube has "My Videos". Google has "My Account" (when using iGoogle).

On the flipside, take a look at Flickr (coincidentally a Yahoo! company). They have "Your photostream", "Your sets", "Your gallery", "Your etc".

Further still, Twitter uses the [user name] method (log in and check your settings: http://twitter.com/account/settings)

What it boils down to is your preference. Pick one way and be consistent.

However (IMHO) either way, it is moot and will not make a difference because someone is not going to be confused by "my" or "your" unless they are used on the same page.

Answer 4

What you choose to do does not really matter as long as you are consistent.

• "My" makes you feel at home
• "Your" says you're using a provider platform and are treated as a "customer". It suggest you don't own the data (in comparison to "My").
• "somename" makes you unsure of whether you're connected on you won account or viewing someone else's... Should be avoided IMO.

Answer 5

Personally I understand what you are going though, the little things such as this can impede on the development process of any project. Typically for me it is a color scheme, but I get the point.

Anyway, I would hands down use "Your profile, Your images." Since the items are of their property, it would only fit. As well... I love it when a website talks to me, it increases the user experience as if a personal bond is created between the application and myself. Allow me to share an example; Say your at a website, there is large heading text on the top which reads:

"[author's name]'s portfolio, view and comment on his(or her) images [link]here[/link]."

One might surmise that this would be a sufficient welcome message, but consider this one instead:

"Hello and welcome, to my website. Here you may browse and comment on some of my work within my portfolio. Thanks for visiting and fell free to stick around, and get lost in the awesomeness...

I think that sounds 100 times better. As you read you get the felling that what you are reading is a personal message just for you and not a generic greater just taking up space. On that note, if all of the credentials for your users, are referring to the user in the first person, then said user might get the felling of a blank emptiness such as being the only one active on your website (At least thats what I get). All of us want the exact opposite of that.

I hope my advice helps, and best of luck.