Metaphors for Hypermedia Interfaces

Abstract

Whenever we want to describe something new we tend to do this by reference to something familiar. This is the prototypical case for using a metaphor, since they are very powerful devices to communicate even a complex, structured set of properties in a shorthand that is easily understood by all members of a speech community who share the relevant mutual knowledge (Black, 1962). When I for instance say that my job is a jail, I communicate all properties of the superordinate category jail with just that statement. You know without any additional word that my job is like those entities that confine one against one’s will, are unpleasant, are difficult to escape from, and so forth. I need not — indeed, I probably could not — list each of those properties exhaustively. Therefore, my use of the metaphor is more efficient and more precise than any partial listing of the properties of the superordinate jail. In other words, if the attribution of all those properties is the communicative purpose, then the appropriate communicative form is the metaphor. In that sense, as Ortony (1975) argued, metaphors are not just nice, they are necessary.