Who's the User in User-centred Design?

Traditionally, a user is someone who directly interacts with an information system. The concept of information systems actability, on the other hand, helps us to identify three meta-roles that actors in a business play in relation to information systems: communicators, performers and interpreters. It is argued that in order to build systems promoting high-quality communication, the concept of user must be extended to embrace all these three meta-roles; i.e., anyone directly or indirectly affected by the actions performed by and through the system. Consequently, if we want to practise user-centred design, actors representing the three meta-roles of users must be involved in the process and their relationships to the system must be properly understood and acknowledged.