{"id":6612,"date":"2009-01-15T08:29:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T15:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=6612"},"modified":"2009-01-15T08:29:12","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T15:29:12","slug":"my-2-cents-on-shawnas-mall-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6612\/my-2-cents-on-shawnas-mall-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"My 2 cents on Shawna’s Mall Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The use of design metaphors was one of the first things Web designers explored in the mid-90’s on the early commercial Web sites. A Southwest Airlines site used the airport ticket counter as a design metaphor, for example, and the mall metaphor itself was widely used by early eCommerce developers.<\/p>\n

I did it, too. I designed a site for the RI Teacher’s union that used a ruled-paper background, and the homepage navigation was designed to look like stuff that was left on top of a notebook. I even had a coffee ring on there.<\/p>\n

In the mid-90’s , most of the first Web designers were coming over from print. As Marshall Mcluhan<\/a> pointed out, we tend to use a new medium the way we used the old one, so a lot of early Web design was driven by what designers knew from print, including the use of metaphor.<\/p>\n

While you can make the argument, as Brian has, that a design metaphor can be used to make people feel comfortable with a user experience by basing it on something they already know, there are good reasons why Southwest and the RI Teachers no longer have metaphor-driven Web site designs.<\/p>\n

If you really want to get into this, check out Jacob Nielsen’s book Designing Web Usability<\/em><\/a> (where he dissects the Southwest ticket counter site), but it boils down to this: The Web has essentially become an operating system, and successful Web sites are basically apps that run on it. The reason your users come to your site is to complete a task using your app.<\/p>\n

That means that Web design has morphed from print-based design principles to software user interface design principles, and the problem with metaphors in UI design is that they don’t scale well as you add functions to your app to enhance your audience’s ability to complete primary and related tasks.<\/p>\n

You end up stretching the metaphor until it breaks, and something that started off\u00a0 giving you a fresh and interesting way to look at a hierarchy of information becomes a drag on your ability to extend that hierarchy. Already on Shawna’s site, you have to Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The use of design metaphors was one of the first things Web designers explored in the mid-90’s on the early commercial Web sites. A Southwest Airlines site used the airport ticket counter as a design metaphor, for example, and the mall metaphor itself was widely used by early eCommerce developers. I did it, too. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[82,284],"class_list":{"0":"post-6612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","7":"tag-real-estate-web-20","8":"tag-web-site-design","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2256,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2256\/quarrying-metaphors-to-name-the-bloodhoundblog-conference\/","url_meta":{"origin":6612,"position":0},"title":"Quarrying metaphors to name the BloodhoundBlog Conference","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We have a name, and we have the birth of a look: We went through zillions of ideas -- Brian and Cathy and I, our contributors, some commenters here, but mainly marketing guru Richard Riccelli. 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I think the difference between frankincense and myrrh is appropriate to this metaphor: Compilation and organization of the holy oil of Real Estate Weblogging came to us by way of the prickly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":118,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/118\/fast-is-the-new-slow\/","url_meta":{"origin":6612,"position":2},"title":"Fast is the new slow…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Friday Seth Godin offered galley copies of his new book, Small Is the New Bigto the first 30 people to send an email to his publisher. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be fast enough to respond -- an apposite metaphor for internet marketing generally. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=gregswann-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1591841267","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":670,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/670\/dual-agency-smack-down-the-renet-smacks-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":6612,"position":3},"title":"Dual Agency Smack-Down: The RE.net smacks back . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are some weblogs addressing the Dual Agency Smack-Down from their own points of view: Whenever we talk about Dual Agency, the most fascinating remarks to me come from Christine Forgione at NY Houses 4 Sale. Because they're still working from sub-agency, we look like aliens to each other. More\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2246,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2246\/bloodhoundblog-marketing-conference-interest-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":6612,"position":4},"title":"BloodhoundBlog Marketing Conference interest list","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've build an interest-list sign-up form for the BloodhoundBlog Marketing Conference I wrote about this morning. Here are two things you can do:If you're interested in coming to or teaching at or sponsoring the conference, fill out the form so we can keep you updated by email.While you're there, give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2643,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2643\/duct-tape-marketing-is-unleashed-but-only-the-wild-dogs-are-unchained\/","url_meta":{"origin":6612,"position":5},"title":"Search Engine Guide is unleashed, but only the wild dogs are unchained","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Jeff Brown found this promotional film for Small Business Marketing Unleashed and passed it on to Brian Brady, who forwarded it to me. Could someone be pulling a Davison on both BloodhoundBlog Unchained and the Daniel Rothamel video? My take: Synchronicity. 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