>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.
One of my hobbies is collecting metaphors. Beats stamps ;) Your quote relates to my biggest gripe of experimental/exploratory UI's like those in Kai Tools for a number of years, and is starting to happen on the web as everyone tries to differentiate themselves. By trying to break out of the conventions/ metaphors being used, they force exploration and rediscovery, that I suspect frustrate new users and many will opt not to do . Relatedly I suspect that many UX teams get so entrenched in the metaphors that they forget that exist, as one of the powers of metaphors are to encapsulate complexity. I see this all the time in dev teams, who after months of programming have lost the naivity of a person who has never seen their system before, and while for a pro everything is 3 clicks away, a newbie doesn't even know where to click the 1st time. > 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. Good example/term. The touch circle is an interesting example as it's hijacks existing metaphors, say a volume knob or to turn the station in a car radio, but since it's not a physically moving device and the feedback is on the display it's different. If looking at the bigger pictures, it's not actually a new idea, as the pro audio mixing consoles started treating sliders and fader and knobs as virtual, to allow easy rewiring. The same knob might be volume, panning, EQ. Some consoles moved to purely touch faders like the Kaos pad, which predate the ipod. Funology relatedly I like how games create novel metaphors, that often only have value in the context of the game. I remember looking over the shoulder of a player raptly entranced in the world of everquest (early version, crappy graphics) and realized just like a person reading a book, the real power was not in the basic elements but rather the interpretted values and investments. I have been wondering how to leverage good game dynamics (like progressive difficulty) to teach real world skills, in real world apps or life. Say short term pleasure + long term pain vrs short term pain + long term pleasure, as often learning new tricks about a UI or life requires to get to the next plateau. Since I work on children's educational tools this is probably more applicable to my field than everyone, I wonder how long it will be before application UI's take the approach of game ui's that powerful items have to earned. So say notepad morphs into Word as the user gains mastery. Troy. ________________________________________________________________ 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
