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Metaphors Gone Wild “Save”
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Morlocks and Eloi at the Keyboard
ATS 315
Metaphors in GUIs
• Made it easy to work with complicated ideas.
• Forced simplifications, assumptions, biases, etc. on us.
Metaphors Gone Wild
• “Save”
Metaphors Gone Wild
• “Save”
Metaphors Gone Wild
• “Save”
• What happens to the “old version” of the file?
Metaphors Gone Wild
• “Save”
• What happens to the “old version” of the file?
• “Destroy”
Metaphors Gone Wild
• “Open”• “Print”• “Help”
• Icons• Desktop
Interfaces
• Make the invention easy…• Make the invention useful…
• Talk about the “interface” for an internal combustion engine:– Clutch, brake, accelerator, etc.
Fly By Wire
Fly By Wire
Fly By Wire
Fly By Wire
Interfaces
• Reflect the technology of the times:
– Clutches, brake pedals, etc.
– Airplane controls
– VCR Controls
WXP Menus
tkwxp
Appliance Interfaces
Appliance Interfaces
Appliance Interfaces
Appliance Interfaces
• Why is it okay to learn so few features on my microwave?
• Why do the manufacturers keep adding more and more features to microwaves?
Cellphone Interfaces
Cellphone Operating Systems
• Symbian– A version of Unix– You can tell that there are folders/directories– You can get compilers, etc.
• No command line interface (reminds me of a Macintosh!)
Cellphone Operating Systems
• Why is the GUI for Symbian adequate?
Simple Interfaces for Simple Tasks
• Making a call• Making popcorn• Recording “24”
Simple Interfaces for Complex Tasks
• Where we run into problems.
Metaphor Shear
• Upgraded to a different version of Word• Couldn’t read his old files anymore
Metaphor about staying at the hotel
What was the “metaphor shear”?
• He pictured his documents symbolically--– Quasipermanent– Ideas were more than the sum of the letters of
the alphabet
• …but they were just binary bits on a magnetic plate…
• …without the right decoder, they were nothing!
“bit rot”
• Nothing was wrong with the files…• …there just wasn’t any code for reading
them anymore!
• A BIG problem in meteorology!