Here is a post that I put up on the discussion board for my online Graphical User Interface/Human Computer Interaction course.

Interface Metaphors

As discussed in the text, some interface metaphors have been shown to be useful, while others have lots of detractors. Please either introduce (or reply to a thread) a particular interface metaphor from web design or interface design that you either like or dislike. Give some detail on your opinion."

Cell phones and strait jackets

The first few times I used a cellular phone, I could not make the call without asking for help. I could not understand the interface. I had trouble turning the phone on, inputing the number I wanted to call, and getting the call to connect.
As a user, I was using the interface metaphor of a hard line telephone and applying what I knew about land-line phones to interacting with the wireless phone. I was expecting cellular phones to operate and have the same interaction language as a land-line phone. I thought this would be the obvious metaphor that the designers of cellular phones would use when introducing the public to this new peice of technology. I found that this was not exactly the case, and as a user, I was frustrated.

When dialing from home or an office using a land-line phone, one picks up the phone, listens for the dialtone which automatically appears, types in the number, and after the last digit is entered, waits while the phone connects and rings.

With cellular device, the sequence is different. One has to turn the phone on, dial the number, then press the TALK or SEND button, or some variation thereof. The process is not as one who is used to making phonecalls would expect. As a user with clear expectations on how a telephone should work, one does not expect changes. There is no dialtone. It is not intuitive to press TALK or SEND to start the connection process. It is not expected that a device that looks like a phone to behave like a personal data assistant, calculator, or dictionary.

I still wonder why the designers of cell phones never modeled the cell phone more closely to the phones most people were used to using. It would not be difficult, to make a cell phone behave nearly identical to a land-line phone, and it would certainly create less confusion for new users. Cell phone designers could keep the sequence of dialing the same: Turning the phone on, dialing the number, and waiting for the person on the other line to pick up.

I realize now that I took the land-line metaphor too seriously. That a wireless network behaves differently than a land-based telephone network and that users must interact differently with it. This is where metaphors break down - when metaphors are taken too literally. Metaphors are a guide through new territory, but they can only take you so far.