Why UX Designers Should Use Idioms Rather Than Metaphors
Interface metaphors, such as the classic desktop metaphor common in graphical user interfaces (GUIs), leverage users’ existing knowledge of a specific domain to enhance the learnability of its software. This means that users can immediately understand how to interact with elements and what possible actions there are in the UI to get what they want. Whilst metaphors may improve the user experience of an interface by allowing users to intuit how to accomplish things, these interface paradigms face challenges in a technological environment that is constantly and rapidly evolving. To overcome these challenges, the field of UX should increasingly turn their attention to interface idioms.