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Computer Science VICTORIAUNIVERSITYOFWELLINGTON Te Whare Wananga o te Upoko o te Ika a Maui VUW Computer Science PO Box 600 Tel: +64 4 463 5341 Wellington Fax: +64 4 463 5045 New Zealand Internet: offi[email protected] User-Interface Metaphors in Theory and Practice Pippin Barr Supervisor: Robert Biddle December 8, 2003 A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science. Dedicated to the pigeons and sparrows of Wellington. Abstract User-interface metaphors are a widely used, but poorly understood, technique employed in almost all graphical user-interfaces. Although considerable research has gone into the applications of the technique, little work has been performed on the analysis of the concept itself. In this thesis, user-interface metaphor is defined and classified in considerable detail so as to make it more understandable to those who use it. The theoretical approach is supported by practical exploration of the concepts developed. Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Metaphors in the User-Interface . 1 1.2 Structure . 2 2 Metaphor and Human-Computer Interaction 4 2.1 Introduction . 4 2.2 What is a Metaphor? . 4 2.3 Metaphor and Computing . 7 2.4 What is a User-Interface Metaphor? . 8 2.5 User-Interface Metaphor Research . 10 2.6 Conclusion . 16 3 Metaphors We Live By 17 3.1 Introduction . 17 3.2 Orientational Metaphors . 18 3.3 Ontological Metaphors . 21 3.4 Structural Metaphors . 25 3.5 Relationships Between the Categories . 26 3.6 Metaphorical Entailments . 27 3.7 New and Conventional Metaphors . 29 3.8 Metonymy . 31 3.9 Conclusions . 33 4 A Semiotic View of User-Interface Metaphors 34 4.1 Introduction . 34 4.2 Introduction to Semiotics . 34 4.3 Basic Peircean Semiotics . 35 4.4 Computer Semiotics . 38 4.5 Interpretation and Generation . 39 4.6 A Semiotic View of Metaphor . 40 4.7 A Semiotic View of the User-Interface . 43 4.8 A Semiotic View of User-Interface Metaphor . 45 4.9 Conclusion . 53 5 A Taxonomy of User-Interface Metaphor 55 5.1 Introduction . 55 5.2 The Taxonomy . 56 5.3 Conclusion . 74 i 6 Applying The Taxonomy 75 6.1 Introduction . 75 6.2 Case Study One - Applying Lakoff and Johnson . 75 6.3 Results of Case Study One . 96 6.4 Case Study Two - Applying the Semiotic Model . 99 6.5 Conclusion . 109 7 Usability Heuristics 111 7.1 Introduction . 111 7.2 The Heuristics . 111 1 Structural Metaphor Usability . 113 2 Orientational Metaphors . 114 3 Metonymy . 115 4 New Metaphors . 116 5 Conventional Metaphors . 117 6 Implicit Metaphors . 118 7 Entailment Selection . 120 8 Metaphor Extension . 121 9 Metaphor Clarification . 121 10 Affordances . 123 11 Media Co-ordination . 124 12 Coherence . 125 13 Metaphor Influence . 126 14 Non-Metaphorical Aspects . 126 15 User Experience . 127 16 Culture . 128 17 User Types . 128 18 Documentation . 130 7.3 Conclusions . 131 8 Heuristic Evaluation 132 8.1 Introduction . 132 8.2 Evaluation Setup . 132 8.3 Evaluation Results . 138 8.4 Analysis of Results . 144 8.5 Further Work . 150 8.6 Conclusions . 150 9 Conclusions 151 A The Heuristics 154 B Heuristic Evaluation of the Project Gallery 156 Bibliography 163 ii List of Figures 2.1 The trashcan from MacOS 9, and the version in MacOS X. 9 2.2 The traffic light window controls in MacOS X. 9 3.1 The “next” and “back” buttons from a wizard dialog box. 20 3.2 The vertical slider used to control volume in MacOS X. 20 3.3 The horizontal sliders used to set computer sleep time in MacOS X. 21 3.4 An example of an ontological metaphor used to quantify and define location in the user-interface. 23 3.5 An example of an entity metaphor used to indicate causation in the user-interface. 24 3.6 An example of a structural metaphor: the trashcan in MacOS X. 26 3.7 An example of assisting metaphor interpretation with secondary indications: the MacOS X window controls before and after a mouse-over. 30 4.1 A diagram of the Peircean triad as applied to a stop-sign. 36 4.2 A diagram of the process of unlimited semiosis. 37 4.3 A semiotic model of metaphor. 42 4.4 A semiotic model of a user-interface sign. 44 4.5 A semiotic model of user-interface metaphor. 46 4.6 The standard document icon in MacOS X. 49 4.7 The standard view of the “paper” in Microsoft Word. 49 4.8 Example of explicit referral to a collection of data as a “document” in the MacOS X help system. 50 5.1 A semiotic model of a user-interface metaphor. 56 5.2 The traditional document icon from MacOS X. 61 5.3 The standard “paper” interface to Microsoft Word for MacOS X. 61 5.4 A diagram of the general structure of the Lakoff and Johnson material. 64 5.5 The standard navigation controls in a “wizard” dialog box. 65 5.6 The vertical slider used to control volume in MacOS X. 66 5.7 An example of referral in the user-interface. 67 5.8 An example of quantification via an object metaphor. 68 5.9 An example of causation being explained via an entity metaphor. 69 5.10 The trashcan in MacOS X, a structural metaphor. 69 5.11 The iTunes equaliser in MacOS X, a structural metaphor. 70 5.12 The “traffic light” window controls in MacOS X. 71 5.13 The icon displaying a blank sheet of paper for the action of creating a new document in Microsoft Word. 73 5.14 The icon displaying a pair of scissors to represent the “cut” function in Mi- crosoft Word. 73 iii 6.1 The Project Gallery window presented to the user on opening an application from Microsoft Office X. 76 6.2 The semiotic model of user-interface metaphor as developed in chapter 4. 108 7.1 The standard calculator application from MacOS X. 114 7.2 An example of misuse of orientational metaphor in a slider. 115 7.3 An example of using directional buttons to control a quantity. 115 7.4 The metonymy used in Microsoft Word to represent the “cut” action. 116 7.5 The metonymy used in Microsoft Word to represent the “create new document” action. 116 7.6 The MacOS X “Traffic Light” window controls. 117 7.7 The action required to eject a CD-ROM in MacOS 9 and in MacOS X respec- tively. 118 7.8 An example dialog which forbids the movement of objects on the desktop. 118 7.9 Part of the specification for some network.
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