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One thing that I am fully with the author on is that the desktop metaphor is in need of an update. Many of the terms we used to soften the transition from typew
by codeGreene 7y ago
One thing that I am fully with the author on is that the desktop metaphor is in need of an update. Many of the terms we used to soften the transition from typewriters, pens, paper, and filing cabinets are not going to be relevant for younger generations.
- V-2 7y agoThe hourglass had been irrelevant for quite a while when it was (successfully) employed as a UI metaphore. I wouldn't assume pens to become obsolete any time soon, either. And whereas filing cabinets do fall out of fashion, the metaphore is deeper here - we will always arrange our possessions in some sort of hierarchical structures. Whether it's a filing cabinet at your office, or drawers and cupboards in your kitchen. This concept is guaranteed to have underlying physical representations, even if some particular use cases will come and go. Not quite so with tagging (suggested by the author as an alternative for folders). Tags are inherently more abstract. I don't really have a clear-cut, real-life way of associating my possessions with a tag cloud, whereby I could plausibly filter out all the #electric stuff I own, or #healthcare stuff, or both at once etc.