Computers 101: Computer metaphors and conventions. Or why it looks and works like that.
beingzoe about 1 month ago // Digital Life Computers 101

The word ‘computer’ is inaccurate. Originally computers were people who did calculations such as accountants or people who wrote up large tables of complex data calculations. Early computers did little more than replace those people and were hence called computers.

A modern computer still performs advanced mathematical calculations, but more relevant to you and I is the fact that a computer interprets and represents data visually and aurally. A computer can follow rules to tell us if an English sentence is grammatically incorrect. It can show us where and how an audio wave form is distorted. It can monitor our actions and offer assistance when performing certain actions.

Universal Information Machine might be a better name. Unlike most other machines, a computer is not inherently preset to perform one function. We can at any point give it new instructions and ask it to do just about anything within the confines of the platform and peripherals. And if the platform and peripherals are too confining we can simply alter all or part of the platform or peripherals, even inventing whole new devices, in order to accomplish a task.

The only problem is how do we interface with such a device? If I pick up a power tool I can quickly learn that one switch controls the speed or direction of operation and the trigger activates the device. The trigger will always activate the device; it won’t suddenly start playing my favorite song when I pull the trigger. This is where interfacing with a computer has proven difficult.

Because a computer can do anything depending on what programs you have running, and the keyboard and mouse are still the most common method of interacting with a computer, every button on your keyboard can become a whole new function to a whole new device with the click of the mouse. In one program the ‘space bar’ may actually create a space in a text document just like a typewriter. In another program the ‘space bar’ will be play/stop media. The computer itself does nothing except follow instructions and the set of instructions (application) you currently loaded virtually changes your computer into a whole new device.

Metaphors and your computer

This is where computer metaphors become vital. Metaphors are the basis for nearly all computer interactions and this is how they are designed. Software designers consider the type of function the software will perform and then model every aspect of it’s functionality around some real world device. Word processing programs function identically to a typewriter and in some instances like a physical typesetting machine. Graphic Design programs use photographic, darkroom, and illustration terminology to function. Multi-track audio recording software mimics the function of an entire recording studio. Video editing software replaces an entire editing bay full of equipment.

Most software is designed to mimic a real world device or environment wherever possible. Reason being that if you know how to operate an entire recording studio you will find it easier to use a digital version of it if it looks familiar and uses similar vocabulary.

Even the core interface of your computer, the operating system, has been given a real world metaphor; the desk or office.

Your computer is a desk with a filing cabinet

Your computer is a filing cabinet with interchangeable power tools all over it. Your computer is a desk where you put things you are currently working on. This is most commonly utilized graphical user interface metaphor for a computer. It is so pervasive because it makes sense and it works. It so intuitive that we rarely ever think about it even though the main screen on your computer is called the desktop, directories are often called folders, and our documents are called files.

Desk & Filing Cabinet

• You are the operating system itself.
• Your desk is the RAM and screen
• Anything you are touching is in the cache
• The drawers of your desk and the filing cabinet next to your desk are hard drives
• EVERY ITEM sitting on your desktop, in the drawers of the desk, and in your filing cabinet are your files and peripherals.

• Turning on the computer: Sitting down at your desk
• Opening a program: Choosing what you are doing when you sit down at your desk: Picking up the phone, making space for paper to write or draw on.
• Navigating your computer: Looking over the top of your desk, rummaging through the drawers in your desk, or getting up and walking over to the filing cabinet and locating a file
• Opening a file: Grabbing a piece of paper, a book, a stapler, a drink and setting it in front of you at your desk, or dialing the phone
• Using a file: Writing on the paper, reading the book, stapling something together, drinking your drink, talking to someone on the phone
• Closing a file: Setting the item aside

If you are disorganized and don’t put things into a logical place in and around your desk it will make it difficult to get anything done. You wouldn’t store a drink in the filing cabinet. If there is something you do all the time at your desk, like make phone calls, it wouldn’t be smart to put your phone in the filing cabinet. Also, things you keep on your desk such as the phone or stapler are like widgets running on your desktop or programs running in your system tray.

Your computer will become just as messy and unusable as a messy desk if you don’t keep it clean. Not maintaining your computer can actually make it unstable and slow. Don’t store all your files in one folder. Defrag, Scan your discs, and run spyware/antivirus software regularly.

By thinking of your computer as a metaphor for real world activities it is easier to understand the computer and shift mental modes when using different applications.

Conventions on your computer

It is also worth mentioning that software design follows various design conventions. Users quickly learn to expect that a particular keystroke will perform a certain type of action and thus it becomes a de facto standard. When starting to learn new software, it is usually easier to expect that it will be more similar than dissimilar to previous programs you have used. Software designers know that people don’t like to spend a lot of time learning new things and they especially don’t like things changing all the time for no good reason. This is why the scroll bar is always on the right side of the window. This is why the HELP menu is always the farthest right menu header. This is why the print option is always under the FILE menu.

Start noticing and learning obvious conventions used on the computer platforms you use and the computer will become a truly simple tool to use.

How to use computer metaphors and conventions to your advantage

Once we accept or create a metaphor for how we are interacting with the computer we now have a vast amount of inherent knowledge as to what to expect from how the software works. We can predict where a particular command might be and more importantly we can begin to understand why a piece of software doesn’t do what we think it should. People have asked why they can’t edit the picture they just imported into their word processor. But if they stopped for even a second and thought about it, the answer would be obvious. Do not be fooled into thinking this is not true because a type of software has added extra functionality outside of its original scope, that it has also become that other type of software. It’s just convenient added functionality, but it will rarely do everything you need in that other area or do it as well.

This part of a series of basic computer skills and knowledge articles. The goal is to provide a more in-depth understanding of computers to folks who don’t want to be computer science majors, but would like to feel proficient using a computer. The topics of these articles are chosen based on the notion that if you understand what your computer is doing, you will be able to figure out how to fix any problem (or at least know who and what to ask to get help).

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to comment here and post other questions in the Digital Life and other communities at CoTradeCo.

See more in the series in the post, Computers 101: Welcome to the show. Or why memorizing is not learning. or simply browse the Digital life Computers 101 community blog topic

All Computers 101 articles by zoe somebody are licensed under creative commons, attribution and share alike.

My desk @ office image used under a Creative Commons License courtesy of Matalyn at Flickr

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• Computers 101: What is email? Or why it isn’t for file sharing.