ABSTRACT
Introduction
In our everyday lives, we use metaphors to systematically organize our experiences of the world. These metaphors structure our conceptual understandings and expectations concerning symbols and actions we encounter (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980). User interface designers have commonly drawn on various metaphors for the layout of screen content and for navigation tools (Erickson, 1990). We suggest that for a metaphor to be most useful in the interface it should coincide with user expectations for the metaphor. Additionally, a designer should provide different metaphors to accommodate different user strategies for accomplishing a task (e.g., a user who expects a map in order to navigate an interface should find one, but a user who doesn't want a map shouldn't be forced to use one).
