Translating Metaphors into Design Patterns

Abstract

Metaphors are powerful cognitive instruments that help us in making sense of the world around us. We start using them already as very small children and they accompany us throughout our lives. Some authors go as far as claiming that all knowledge is metaphorical (Indurkhya 1994). But even if we do not subscribe to that position we cannot but admit that metaphors are an important cornerstone of human creativity (Seitz 1997). It therefore stands to reason that they might be useful in highly creative undertakings such as the development of information systems. The latter activity in particular is fraught with a principal problem: Most stakeholders in the system are not knowledgeable in system design and they find it very difficult — if not impossible — to envision a system that does not yet exist. It is not there to look at or to play with and in early stages there is not even a rudimentary prototype that could be studied. To imagine how a future system might look like, what functions it will have and how it will support and shape my daily work is well beyond the powers of most potential users of such a system. In this context a metaphor can be a powerful device for building a bridge from the known to the unknown. It draws on ideas that people are familiar with from their everyday experience.