Metaphors - Page 8

A television channel metaphor used for navigation is cute but useless. Instead of showing static when the user first approaches the page, it would be better to show a summary of what can be done here. And although the use of numbered channels for choosing options may be metaphorical, it has very low usability. It is impossible to predict what a given number will correspond to, and it is hard to remember where to go back for information you have already seen. Channel numbers are bad on television as well and work only because stations have spent huge amounts of money in an attempt to brand something as impersonal as the number Four.

The 1995 design for Southwest Airlines was highly metaphorical and survived until about mid-1999, at which time it was replaced by a much more literal design. Even though the old design tried to give the feeling of an airport check-in counter, the new design looks more like an airline site. And from a usability perspective, trying to actually do anything is much easier in the new design. The old design clearly highlights one of the main downsides of metaphor: that it often does not extend well enough to cover all the necessary features of a system. In this case, the designers wanted to include a message from the Chairman (often a bad idea, but let's accept it for now) and had to accommodate this link by hanging his picture on the wall. True Chinese Embassy design.

The Home Page Versus Interior Pages - Page 7
Designing Web Usability
More Metaphors - Page 9