474 Readings Summary -- Week: Oct 8 to Oct 15

A metaphor is a concept from one linguistic category (source) used about a phenomenon normally referred to by concepts from a different linguistic category (target). The major linguistic categories are animate, inanimate, human, animal and physical objects. There are three streams of research on metaphor. Operational approaches focus on how and to what extent metaphors have a measurable effect on learning. Structural approaches address metaphor by developing formal representations of relations of between (and among) primitives. Pragmatic approaches acknowledge that in the context of real-world situations, metaphor inevitably involves incompleteness and mismatches and that the power of the metaphor may be attributed to such disparities between the source and the target domains.

A collection of five cases demonstrates that metaphors may be used in many areas and sometimes more than one metaphor can be applied to the same system (e.g. library as a warehouse, store or meeting place). Guidelines derived from these cases are organized to three main activities.

Generating metaphors. Listen to how users understand their computer systems. Build on existing metaphors (increasing chance of successful assimilation). Use predecessor artifacts as metaphors (e.g. library card files). Note metaphors that are implicit in the problem description. Look for real-world events exhibiting key aspects.

Evaluating metaphors. Choose a metaphor with a rich structure (e.g. "link" too general, "TV broadcast" is good). Evaluate the applicability of the structure (e.g. TV may not be good as it implies simultaneous transmission). Choose a metaphor suitable to the audience. Choose metaphors with well-understood literal meanings. Choose metaphors with conceptual distance between the source and the metaphorical meaning. Having at least one bridging concept. Don't necessarily explicitly incorporate the metaphor in the final design.

Developing Metaphors. Elaborate the triggering concept (e.g. "to have conversations" in the meeting metaphor). Look for new meanings for the concept (e.g. "a meeting place" needn't be a physical location but a virtual BBS instead). Restructure the perception of reality (e.g. label the staff as "consultants"). Elaborate assumptions. Tell the metaphor's story. Identify the unused part of the metaphor. Generate conflicting accounts (to stimulate reflection and critical awareness, e.g. the different views of what a library is about).

Examining characteristics. Physical structure plays an important role. Metaphor is an inherent part of everyday language. Metaphors often originate from everyday experience. Abstract concepts are understood in terms of concrete and familiar things. Metaphors provide detailed and specific design options. Metaphors may provide basis for justifying design decisions. A metaphor provides the user with a model of the system. Seeing something as something else, providing a novel view of reality, shifting focus of attention and problem setting.

Dilemma between tradition and transcendence is designing system resembling previous work environment while trying to benefit from power of new technology (e.g. traditional desktop but with ability to move folders into one another regardless of size).

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