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The Desktop Metaphor

Metaphors are used in order to control the complexity of a system, benefitting from users' knowledge of other domains (Apple Computer Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines 4-5, Helander 67, Microsoft 4-5). As already pointed out in section 2.2,2, the desktop metaphor was chosen for personal computers due to the environment of their use.⁵⁵ Things that belong to the desktop metaphor include:

• files,
• folders,⁵⁶
• trash can,⁵⁷
• windows if regarded as pieces of paper (see next section),
• labels, and
• notes.

Microsoft, however, emphasizes that it is not necessary to limit a computer-based implementation to its "real world" counterpart, since the metaphor is not an end in itself (4). As an example, folders and trash cans have a limited capacity in the real world; in the desktop metaphor, they can hold as many files as the hard disk can cope with. Furthermore, real-world files are not put in folders which are put in folders which are put in folders and so on, as Kai Krause points out (Borchert 151). Consequently, this causes problems for novice users.⁵⁸
Another famous example is the Mac OS trash can. In order to eject a removable volume (e.g. a CD-ROM), the user has to drag the volume onto the trash can since the first version of the MacOS (which had to do with the fact that the first Macintosh had no hard drive and users had to cope with memory images of the disks they used).
Apart from those items which have at least a similar real-world counterpart, additional items can be found in the desktop metaphor:

• disk drives (or "volumes"),
• a system,
• special objects, for example a network icon,
• programs,
• menus, and
• dialog boxes.

While the last two items will be discussed in other sections, the first items may be regarded as special folders. However, there is no equivalent to programs and a system, and it is hard to make it fit the metaphor.
Furthermore, some actions in the desktop metaphor have no equivalent in the real world, for example changing the size of a window or duplicating an icon (Schmauks 124). Nevertheless, these actions are easy to learn, and the rest of the metaphor might support the "realness" of these actions. For example, most users are likely to believe that, when moving a file from one folder to another, they are really moving that file, although they are only changing a pointer to that file under the surface of the graphical user interface (Erickson 66).⁵⁹ Thus, despite the inconsistencies, the desktop metaphor seems to work well, and the reasons for this are examined in the next section.

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