Sharing personal thoughts on how metaphors can hinder, rather than help software modeling and design (at different levels). Talk presented at the 2014 Better Software Conference.

1. THE MATAPHOR FALLACY
A tale about the UI, the DB, and a Bus Stop
Better Software Conference – Florence (Italy), 14-10-2014

2. STEVE @MARASPIN

3. http://www.mvlabs.it/

4. CONTEXT ONE:
HOTEL ENTERTAINMENT

5. Movie Player Application

6. Distributed Context

7. Internet

8. What if it fails?

10. Replication

11. What if connection fails?

12. No Problems!

13. Are things that simple?

14. The Movie Entity

15. Headquarter Update

16. Remote Update

17. Different Documents

18. How to solve the conflict?

19. Natural entity representation

20. What if we represented it like…

21. Avoiding Conflicts

22. GOOD PRACTICES

23. NOT ALWAYS
WHAT WE COME UP FIRST

24. CONTEXT TWO:
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

25. Ever seen something like this?

26. CRUDWARE

27. /kruhd'weir/ Pejorative term for
the hundreds of megabytes of
low-quality freeware circulated
by user's groups and BBSs in
the micro-hobbyist world.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crudware

28. /kruhd'weir/ Realistic term for
user interfaces grown out of a
database schema.

29. SOMETHING TO FIGHT AGAINST

30. Table is so wide, we need to scroll horizontally…

33. We simply can't keep so much information in mind at once!

34. USER CENTERED DESIGN

35. Use Cases

36. Simplified Interfaces

37. LET'S NOW TALK
ABOUT MOBILE

38. AN AFTERTHOUGHT

39. Consistent Design
39

40. Bringing everything
everywhere

41. FORGETTING

42. HOW SYSTEMS

43. WILL BE USED

47. CONTEXT MATTERS

49. Continuous Design

50. Complimentary Design
50

53. Don't shrink, rethink

54. Don't shrink, rethink

55. 55

56. 56

57. 57

58. 58
INFLUENCED
BY WHAT WE KNOW,
BY WHAT WE EXPECT

60. Conceptual Metaphor Theory
Understanding of one idea, or
conceptual domain, in terms of
another

61. Argument is War
Your claims are indefensible
I've never won an argument with him
You disagree? OK, shoot!
He shot down all of my arguments

62. So what?
Metaphors can help us understand
things, but they can also influence and
direct us toward unintended goals. War
goal is defeating enemy, argument goal
should be reaching a solution. What if
our metaphor is so strong that it
hinders our reasoning rather than
helping it?

63. Stop Now

64. Really. Skip to next slide. And read it carefully.
Attempt to solve the problem before continuing

65. Connect the dots with no more than 4 straight lines
without lifting your hand from the paper

67. The limitations our mind adds to the problem often
prevent us from finding the best solution to it

68. Doorbell outside
Doorbell
Doorbell
Light

69. WHAT CAN HELP US?

70. HE'S OUR
ANSWER!

71. HE'S OUR
ANSWER!
His sense
of humour,
I mean

73. With humor
thoughts
and ideas
are arranged
in novel ways

74. PAIRWORK

75. Elaborating more than one solution

76. Incubating

77. Systems Thinking
77

78. Component parts of a system can best
be understood in the context of
relationshipswith each other and with
other systems, rather than in isolation

79. BE INQUISITIVE

80. Thank you for your attention
Stefano Maraspin
@maraspin
s.maraspin@mvassociati.it

81. QUESTIONS?

82. FOLLOW @MARASPIN

83. http://www.mvlabs.it/

84. Further reading

85. Further reading

86. • http://www.flickr.com/photos/uggboy/8043043095 - hotel room
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/inklaar/7776986724 - supermarket
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/larlyboi/10817772745 - figting match
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/hindrik/8578352814 - man walking with monitor
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/piermario/375470947 - doorbell UX issue
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/icathing/26603225 - woodden spoiler
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/highwaysagency/11235762823 - smartphone
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/14391802087 - smartphone usage at the traffic light
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/6937521074 - smartphone while on bicycle
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/42736403@N08/5439996103 - 3 monitors on personal computer
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/sinkdd/14674613090 - using a smartphone under the rain
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/184328594 - bus stop on a rainy day
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/horlik/4461554607 - darts on target
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/planetbene/6073389358 young friends playing with lego
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiertz/6952472683 - bin and drafts sent to trash
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/christianhaugen/6026460141 barrels
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking#mediaviewer/File:Systems_thinking_about_the_society.svg – systems thinking
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/theloushe/4640871734 - kid with magnifier
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/uspn/4894253589 - bus in India. Crowded
Other pictures are by Stefano Maraspin, or gathered from fotolia/iStockphoto archives
86
Picture Credits

87. Stefano Maraspin
@maraspin