Metaphor mayhem: mismanaging expectation and surprise

Did you see a recent two-page Apple Newton national magazine advertisement with a giant headline that asks, 'What is Newton? " The ad proceeds to answer the strategic query by listing the Newton's primary capabilities and benefits. The ad is symptomatic: with new combinations of functions and data made available for work and play, people may no longer have any idea what a gizmo does or why they should buy it. As processor-based devices shift from computation to communication, developers are attaching general-purpose display and interaction front ends to international multimedia communication networks to provide people with ever-increasing access to large amounts of data and functions. User interfaces with multimedia, hypertext interactions. .. january 1994 links, agents, advanced knowledge visualization techniques, and possibly virtual reality attributes , are often quite unlike those that office workers , students, children, senior citizens, and the general consumer have previously experienced. Will these new user interfaces completely befuddle customers or help them understand the developers' intentions, navigate the content, and use the tools effectively? One challenge for user interface designers seems clear: inventing or rediscovering metaphors that can help specific kinds of people notice, comprehend, use, and enjoy new products. Metaphors provide the underlying images, terms, and concepts that make communication possible at all. Without them, the products are useless.