Visual Metaphors for Designing Portals and Site Maps

Abstract

When one says, “life is a struggle,” “life is a journey,” “at the evening of the life,” “at the dusk of the life,” he or she is using metaphors. A metaphor denotes a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things that are basically different but have something in common. In computing, the older metaphor is the desktop metaphor, which was used by Apple for the first visual interface. In the desktop metaphor, the computer screen is a virtual “desktop” with electronic “folders,” “documents,” “disk icons,” and a “trash can,” which are patterned after the physical objects in the physical office. Now the desktop metaphor is quite common in all visual operating systems. As Catarci, Costabile, and Matera (1995) said, “The more the metaphor is appropriate and visually impressive, the easier it is for the user to grasp the intended meaning.”