Designing With Metaphors

7/22/2019 Designing With Metaphors

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Designing with metaphors

Uday DandavateCo-Founder and CEO, SonicRim.


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My curiosity for uncovering the design principles behind how"Life" works has taken me in several directions, metaphors

being one of them. Being trained in Industrial Design at NID, itwould have been easy for me to look at skeuomorphism as a

direct application of metaphors. However a life-centric curiositymakes me more interested in the discourse surrounding an

object that leads to sense-making in the collective conscious of

the community in which the design must live. That is why myinterest in provoking this conversation is to inspire designers to

look at our opportunities as sense-makers through use of

metaphors.

Uday Dandavate

October 22, 2013

A Personal note


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Most technical innovations, it should be acknowledged, resultfrom using metaphors appropriately. Not all metaphors work,

of course, but those that do can change the world. Sincemetaphors cross apparently distinct experiential domains,

people who can move with ease through many domains andfeel free to use metaphors in conversations with others have

a better chance to innovate than those who hold on to the

literal language of experts in any one domain.

Klaus Krippendorf, The semantic turn: A new foundation for design.

Designing with metaphors


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The purpose of this white paper is to clarify how to Design

with metaphors.

When presented with fragments of information or an abstractset of concepts, metaphors allow the mind to picture the

fragments as parts of a familiar concept, a category, or a form

(for example, a desktop).

By gaining sensitivity to metaphors that naturally work in the

subconscious, designers can develop engaging, meaningful,

and delightful interfaces.

Objective


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Designers of the desktop interface

took into account a novice computeroperators need for making sense of

complex information, concepts, and

procedures while conceptualizing the

desktop metaphor.

In the old days only a skilled computeroperator could work on complex

computer operating systems.

The design of the graphical user

interfaces (GUI) incorporating the look,feel, and nomenclature of a physical

workspace made it easy for noviceusers to understand computer

commands as if they were instinctively

handling documents in a physicalworkspace.

Why metaphors are important

Metaphors help compensate for

our natural weaknesses. Most ofus are not very good at thinking

about abstractions or spiritual

states so we rely on concrete or

spatial metaphors to (imperfectly)do the job. A lifetime is pictured as

a journey across a landscape. Aperson who is sad is down in the

dumps, while a happy fellow is

riding high. Most of us are notgood at understanding new things,

so we grasp them imperfectly by

relating them metaphorically tothings that already exist. Thats a

desktop on your computerscreen. Metaphors are things we

pass down from generation to

generation, which transmit a

cultures distinct way of seeingand being in the world.

David Brooks


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Metaphors draw upon the

minds capacity to fill in.

The minds capacity to fill in


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The mind is endowed

with the capacity to frame

meaning from scattered

information available to it.

Image source: McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics.,The Invisible Art. Harper Perennial. New York. 1993


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It strives to connect

pieces of information into

a meaningful whole.



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We are often faced with

fragments of

information which can

seem disconnected,

conflicted, incoherent,

or incomplete. Themind strives to connect

the fragments to

construct the whole

picture.

Making sense of fragments


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1. Associating fragments with a higher

order category.


To make sense of information fragments, the mindapplies two mechanisms:

2. Relating fragments to a memory of

a past meaningful experience.


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1. Associating fragments with a higher

order category.

2. Relating fragments to a memory of

a past meaningful experience.

In both situations the mind imagines a superstructure or a form

within which the fragments can be envisioned as parts of a larger

whole.



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Metaphoric sense-making is

a very personal experiencedriven by an individualsmemories.

At the same time, a

community of people withshared cultural, social, or

linguistic memories can drawsimilar meanings from

fragments of information if

the fragments are associatedwith metaphors drawn from

their shared memories.

Metaphoric sense-making

Linguistic research

suggests that people usea metaphor every 10 to 25words. Metaphors are not

rhetorical frills at the edgeof how we think. They are

at the very heart of it.

James Geary, I is an outsider


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The purpose of using

metaphors in design of aliving system is to influence

how people see, decide, and

act when confronted with

complex sets of information.

It involves mapping an

experience from a source

domain (memories of a past

experience) on the targetdomain (a new design

application).

Metaphors in language

Metaphors are constructed

through mappings from onedomain to another.Sometimes these mappings

are explicit, sometimes theyare hidden, sometimes they

are clear-cut one-on-one

connections, andsometimes they are fuzzy

and cross-levels of

categorization.Klaus Krippendorff


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Donald Schon, a leading expert in

reflective professional learning,provides an example of what a

metaphor does for designers. A

design research team was trying to

improve the performance of apaintbrush. The team was focused

on improving the bristles, but afterexperimenting with different

synthetic materials and bristle

designs, they could not achieve anysignificant improvement

After many futile efforts someone

suggested, You know a paintbrush

is a kind of pump; when a paintbrush

is pressed against a surface, paint isforced through the spaces between

the bristles on the the surface. The

paint flows through channels whose

size is controlled by the painter'sbending of the brush. Painters even

vibrate a brush to facilitate the flow

of paint.

Metaphors in design: An example

Talking of a brush in terms of a pump

radically altered the researchersconception of their task. When the

paintbrush is pump metaphor

entered their deliberations, the

designers experienced a gestaltswitch from seeing a brush as a

bundle of bristles to seeing it as asystem of capillaries that soak up the

paint and enable the painter to

squeeze it onto the surface bycontrolling the painting rather

differently. The metaphor changed the

designers perceptions and led tobetter paintbrushes and several

patents.

The metaphor not only changed

individual perceptions occurring in

language, it also coordinated the

actions of the development teammembers, which is a social process.


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Most artifacts occur in languagebefore they are put to use, and

often continue in language well

after they fall out of favor. Artifacts

that are being talked about enter

the language of particularcommunities and become social

or cultural artifacts, often well

before they are actually used by

individuals. The meanings that

artifacts acquire in use are largelyframed in language, and enacting

these meanings occupies only a

small part of their life.

Metaphors in language

Designers should learn metaphors in

language because they:

Direct attention; Frame perception; Create facts; Are relational; Are an embodied phenomenon.Therefore, understanding language

is critical to developing the ability to

practice design as meaning-making

activity. Designers can find use from

understanding language as a:

System of signs and symbols; Medium of individual expression; Medium of interpretation; Process of coordinating the

perceptions and actions of its

speakers.


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The metaphor, Argument is war is reflected in our everyday language

through a wide variety of expressions, e.g.: Your claims are indefensible. He attacked every weak point in my argument. His criticisms were right on target. I demolishedhis argument. Ive neverwon an argument with him. You disagree? OK Shoot! If you use that strategy, hell wipe you out. He shot down all of my arguments.

Many of the things we argue are partially structured by the concept of

war. Though there is no physical battle, there is a verbal battle and the

structure of an argument attack, defense, counterattack, etc. reflects

this.

From Metaphors we live byby George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

In illustrating an argument, a designer does not need to showvisualizations of war attributes.

Structural metaphors


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The metaphor Time is money adds meaning to the perception of

time as a valuable commodity, e.g.:

Structural metaphors

You are wasting my time. This gadget will save you hours. I dont have the time to give you. How do you spend your time these days?

That flat tire cost me an hour. Ive invested a lot of time in her. I don't have enough time to spare for that. Youre running out of time. You need to budget your time. Put aside some time for ping pong. Is that worth our while? Do you have much time left? Hes living on borrowed time. You dont use your time profitably. I lost a lot of time when I got sick. Thank you for your time.From Metaphors we live byby George Lakoffand Mark Johnson


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Orientation metaphors

While structural metaphors involve representing one concept in terms of another,

orientation metaphors give a concept a spatial orientation:up-down, in-out, front-back, on-off, deep-shallow, central-peripheral, e.g.:

Happy is up; sad is down. Conscious is up; unconscious is down. Health and life are up; sickness and death are down. Having control or force is up; being subject to control or forceis down. More is up; less is down. High status is up; low status is down. Good is up; bad is down. Virtue is up; depravity is down. Rational is up: emotional is down.From Metaphors we live byby George Lakoff and MarkJohnson

Every effective metaphor has an experiential basis which must be understood with

reference to the physical and cultural context of that experience.


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Ontological metaphors

Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existing, orliving in reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.Ontological metaphors are based on our experiences with physical objects

(including our bodies). These metaphors involve viewing events, activities,emotions, and ideas as entities and substances, e.g.:

Inflation is an entity:

Inflation is lowering our standard of living. If there is much more inflation, well never

survive.

We need to combat inflation.The mind is a machine:

My mind just isnt operating today. Boy, the wheels are turning now. Im a little rusty today.The mind is a brittle object:

He cracked up.From Metaphors we live byby George Lakoffand Mark Johnson


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The idea of territory is a basic human instinct. We perceive ourselves as

containers, set off from the rest of the world by the surface of our skin, and weexperience the world around us as the outside us. We also project our own in-out

orientation onto other physical objects that are bounded by surfaces.

Room/house is a container:

I am moving out of the room.Visual field is a container:

The ship is coming into view. I have him in sight. There is nothing in sight.An event is a container:

Are you in a race on Sunday? He is out of the race now.From Metaphors we live byby George Lakoff and MarkJohnson


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Specifying a physical object as a person allows for comprehending a

wide variety of experiences with non-human entities in terms of human

motivations, characteristics, and activities, e.g.:

Life has cheated me. Inflation is eating up our profits. Our biggest enemy right now is inflation.From Metaphors we live byby George Lakoff

and Mark Johnson


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Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a certain concept is usedto stand in for another concept with which it is associated, e.g.:

Crown - in place of a royal person. The White House - in place of the President or others who work there. The suits - in place of business people. Dish - for an entire plate of food. The Pentagon - to refer to the staff. The library - for the staff or the books. Pen - for the written word. Sword - for military might. Hand - for help. The name of a country - used in place of the government, economy, etc.From Metaphors we live byby George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

Designers can support exploration of artifacts by using commonmetonyms as metaphors. For example, Apple computers started touse the image of a garbage can for users to drag unwanted files toit for deletion.


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Examples

Metaphors can be used in design in a variety of ways:

1. To develop navigational attributes of a software product.2. To envision experiential qualities of a new product interface

(hardware and software) based on peoples cherished experiences

with another entity (a product, a relationship, a person, an

environment).3. To synergize team creativity by providing a metaphor as a guideline

for brainstorming ideas.


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Examples

Being aware of metaphors reminds you of the central role that

poetic skills play in our thoughts. If much of our thinking isshaped and driven by metaphors, then the skilled thinker willbe able to recognize patterns, blend patterns, apprehend the

relationships, and pursue unexpected likenesses. Even thehardest of the sciences depend on a foundation of metaphors.

To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled by the complexityof the world, to realize that deep in the undercurrents ofthought there are thousands of lenses popping up between us

and the world, and that were surrounded at all times by what

Steven Pinker of Harvard once calledpedestrian poetry.

David Brooks, Poetry for Everyday Life in The New York Times


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Examples: Metaphors for communication

At SonicRim, a global exploratory study of communication behaviors

for a leading technology company led us to recommend City as ametaphor for development of an ecosystem of communication and online

tools. Below are the qualities of city life that make this metaphor suitable.

A city is made up of many random, unknown people (a lot of random people are on social

networks):

Make it easy to discover other people on the services on the communication portal.Engaged in constant activity (someones always posting something):

Design the communication portal services to feel like a place that always has somethinggoing on.

Life in a city is marked by mixed-use of spaces and destinations (lots of things to do on theInternet, e.g.: play, shop, chat, flirt, etc.):

Make the communication portal service the place where people connect to a range ofonline services and activities.

Enable the communication portal service to be embedded in a variety of online activities(e.g.: shopping, viewing media, interacting on blogs, etc.).

They create unplanned/accidental interactions (seeing peoples posts triggers conversationand spontaneous plans):

Find ways to show people interesting things that their network is doing or talking about.Visible patterns of interesting behaviors encourage spontaneous interactions (going where

the crowd is, seeing a highly thumbed copy of a book at the library):

Find wa s to show eo le atterns in their and their networks communication activities.


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Examples: Metaphors for vehicle interiors

A global study on the future of smart experiences in the vehicle conductedfor a global company responsible for innovating interior systems for the

automobile industry led to development of four key metaphors.

The identification of metaphors helped organized a series of ideation workshops

where designers, engineers, marketing executives, and automotive company

representatives were engaged in conceptualizing specific electronic andmechanical features that would enable people to experience different moments

of their drive, as moments resonant with experiences from other spaces

moments from their life outside of the vehicle.

The shift in focus from designing automotive components to designing

experience features that bring alive desired attributes of metaphors allowedparticipants to come up with break-through ideas that would delight drivers with

the comforts and conveniences of real-life experiences associated with the

metaphors.


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Examples: Magazine as a metaphor

A leading retain chain hired SonicRim to explorebehavioral and aspirational aspects of how

people shop for a specific category of products.

The objective was to develop a strategic

framework that inspired conceptualization of a

customer journey and an in-store brandedexperience.

Through ethnographic research and cognitive-

mapping activities we compiled a large number

of stories from people that revealed their habits,

motivations, values, and challenges. We realizedthat in order to understand and develop a

branded experience, the client team needed to

internalize the stories from the life of their target

audience as a resource to shape their

understanding of customer habits, motivations,

values, and challenges.As a visioning activity, we designed a fictitious

magazine as a metaphor that would drive team

activities at the clients company. Werecommended that through an ongoing editorial

compilation and narration of stories from the

lives of everyday people, the client team woulddevelop deep understanding of the emerging

category, and then craft marketing messagesthat would resonate with their customers.

Examples: Metaphors for digital


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Examples: Metaphors for digital

tracking

Recently we completed a global studyfor a digital agency where we explored

how, when, and why people consume

video- based ads and how those

videos influence family decisions.

A key question that we addressed was,how receptive are people towards

being tracked in order to deliverpersonalized video content to them?

The answer to this question was

discovered in the form of a metaphorthat plays out in the imagination of the

participants. As long as the relationship

with the device or the digital portal wasthat of a friend who understands them

and shares experiences with them as aconfidant, they would allow the digital

agency to UNDERSTAND them.

FRIENDS ANTICIPATE YOUR NEEDS.

FRIENDS CHALLENGE YOU.

FRIENDS ARE FUN.

FRIENDS RESPECT YOUR BOUNDARIES.


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Even the hardest of the sciences depends on a foundationof metaphors. To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled

by the complexity of the world, to realize that deep in theundercurrents of thought there are thousands of lenses

popping up between us and the world, and that weresurrounded at all times by what Steven Pinker of Harvard

once calledpedestrian poetry.

David Brooks

E l M h i li i


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Examples: Metaphors in politics

Metaphor and other forms of figurative or symbolic language have beenthought to be persuasive devices for many years. Dozens of political theorists

have extolled the virtue of metaphors as effective persuasive devices or have

demonized metaphors as manipulative tools of politicians. Such linguistic

devices are important- even necessary-tools of political discourse because

political events are abstract and too numerous for public consumption.Metaphors allow the general public to grasp the meanings of political events

and feel a par of the process. They are also effective because of their ability to

resonate with latent symbolic representations residing at the unconscious

level. Finally metaphors fit into the prevailing notions of information processing

models of public knowledge of politics. Because of information processingdemands, people cannot pay attention to all aspects of political evidence.

Therefore, something is needed to simplify decision-making, and metaphor

and other shortcut devices (e.g. cognitive heuristics) address this need.

Jeffery Scott Mio in Metaphor and Politics, California State Polytechnic,Pomona.

H t d i ith t h


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How to design with metaphors

H t d i ith t h


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How to design with metaphors

Research:

Using generative research methods,

design researchers explore memoriesof various significant moments tied to

the topic of design (e.g.: a driving

experience).

Synthesis:

Organizing stories and participant-

generated artifacts (such as cognitive

maps) help identify metaphors thatlend meaning to specific experiences

tied to the topic of the study.

Design:

Using metaphors as a source domain,designers help transpose experiential

characteristics of the metaphor on to atarget domain (an experience

associated with the design project).

Bibli h


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Bibliography

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics., TheInvisible Art. Harper Perennial. New York.

1993

Schon, Donald. Generative metaphor: Aperspective on problem setting in social

policy. In Metaphor and Thought. Ed.Endrew Ortony. Pp 137-163

Scott Mio, Jeffery in Metaphor and Politics,Metaphor and Symbol, 12(2), pg 113-133California State Polytechnic, Pomona. 1997

Brooks, David, OPED Poetry forEveryday Life in The New York Times,

April 11, 2011.

Geary, James, I Is an Other: The SecretLife of Metaphor and How It Shapes the

Way We See the World. Harper CollinsPublishers, New York 2011.

Krippendorff Klaus, The Semantic Turn,A New Foundation for Design, CRCPress. Boca Ranton, London, New York,2006

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson,Metaphors We Live by, The University of

Chicago Press, Chicago and London1980

Lakoff, George, Women, Fire and

Dangerous Things. What CategoriesReveal about the Mind. The University of

Chicago Press, Chicago and London1987.

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Designing With Metaphors