Definitions
icon
sign/symbol
metaphor

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Metaphor

R. Jacobson, 1999, Information Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, p.280.

Refers to the overall concept of how a user interacts with a computer. Robert Jacobson considers that a good example is the 'desktop metaphor used by many personal computers. The strength of this idea was that it used common objects to indicate relationships by analogy (a trash can for discarding files, files for individual projects, folders for keeping groups of files together, etc.)' (Jacobson, 1999). Therefore computer icon metaphors allow computer commands to be executed by the user, without the need to understand the program language, when the implied metaphor matches meaning with context.

Therefore, because computer interface functionality is through iconic metaphors, semantics can be considered as to what these icon and icon elements appear to represent; syntax refers to grammar as a visual reading order within the compound icon, and lexical forms are elements within the compound icon that appear to be in regular use, having taken meaning. Then there is the pragmatics of our ability to view these compound icons through computer interfaces.

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