I tend to deliberately avoid the situation with a variety of alternatives, including, but not limited to the user
and they
. And in any case, it simplifies the issue a bit because once you use he
or she
you have to concern yourself with use of his
, her
, hers
, etc.
I am not alone:
The Microsoft user experience guidelines is about 880 pages and refers to he
in just one sentence, she
in just two different sentences, and he or she
in just one. But the user
is used 550 times and they
384 times
The Apple Human Interface Guidelines does not use he
or she
once in some 280 pages but the user
comes up about 445 times and they
835 times.
[Those figures are adjusted to exclude the user
when used as part of the term the user experience
]
I can't speak for scientific writing generally, but I do find it 'of note' these days when a text chooses to use she
or he
. I don't see that choosing the opposite of he
really addresses the balance so much as tries to overcompensate for what I agree has been an imbalance in the past.
But you are asking an audience that is probably somewhat biased towards the user
!!