"Out of curiosity, has anyone out there read Lakoff & Johnson's "Metaphors we > live by"?
Actually, I have read the book and it is informative, but dated. It doesn't address the issue of metaphors in UIs which are very different from language based metaphors, which is why they often fail. Language metaphors are constructed when speakers have violated one of the Gricean Maxims listed below. In order for communication to happen, speakers and listeners all have to agree implicitly to the Gricean Maxims below and assume that they are true for everyone. Language metaphors happen when the bridging of two literal meanings create an implicit or non-literal meaning because the literal sense of the message is ambiguous or untrue. The act of combining the two literal meanings is the understanding or the work of decoding the metaphor. If users aren't given a motivation to decode a new combination of meanings or an ambiguity, the metaphor will fail. Briefly, Grice states that when people are presented with a message- verbal or written, they attempt to understand it because they assume the following is always true of every communication. 1. Communication is a cooperative endeavor; the message is intended to be understood 2. Quality; the message sender by virtue of taking the effort to send the message believes it worthy of understanding 3. Relevance; each message is relevant to the situation or topic- it is not random. 4. Manner; each message is a clear contribution free of ambiguity and obsequiousness. Grice, H. P. (1996). Logic and Conversation, in Readings in Language and the Mind. Ed. by Geirsson, H. & Losonsky, M. Blackwell Publishing. pp 124-125. In order for people to do this work for symbolic metaphors, the symbol must motivate people in some way. The motivation can be implicit-trying to get the UI to perform in a certain way or pressure from other users to understand the UI. But the point is that people will not try to automatically decode a symbolic metaphor with no motivation because they don't assume the same principles as they do for language metaphors. For the iPod, people figured out how to make the touch circle control work because they were fascinated by the device, were pressured by other users and the media... etc. Funology stuff. The 'trashcan' metaphor is used repeatedly, like iPod controls and is now considered a "dead metaphor" or idiom. It is thought that through repetition of use, idioms create their own meaning separate from any literal translation and don't have to adhere to Gricean Maxims. They are literally understood in their own sense. The research I'm working on right now. :) So, I'm always looking for more ideas in this area (dissertation topics anyone?), please email me if anything comes to mind or I can share my hours of pouring over this literature. cheers, Jo -- L. Jo Elliott, M.A. PhD student former IBM usability engineer Engineering Psychology/Human Factors/HCI New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM 88001 USA ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
