Desktop Metaphor

Metaphors are used in computer interfaces in order to aid user to understand a new target domain by allowing them to comprehend it in terms of a source domain they understand [Baecker et al. 1995]. In order to generate useful metaphors, Erickson points to note what metaphors are already implicit in the problem description [Erickson 1990].

In summary, a desk typically implies a static piece of furniture used for organizing documents. This is in the best case, an indirect support for an active reading machine, an still a composite metaphor would be required, since it would be very difficult to find real world objects that fit the desktop metaphor and represent intuitively the automate