Comparing Design Metaphors and User-Driven Metaphors for Interaction Design
arXiv:2603.27908v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Metaphors enable designers to communicate their ideal user experience for platforms. Yet, we often do not know if these design metaphors match users' actual experiences. In this work, we compare design and user metaphors across three different platforms: ChatGPT, Twitter, and YouTube. We build on prior methods to elicit 554 user metaphors, as well as ratings on how well each metaphor describes users' experiences. We then identify 21 design metaphors by analyzing each platform's historical web presence since their launch date. We find that design metaphors often do not match the metaphors that users use to describe their experiences. Even when design and user metaphors do match, the metaphors do not always resonate universally. Through these f
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Abstract:Metaphors enable designers to communicate their ideal user experience for platforms. Yet, we often do not know if these design metaphors match users' actual experiences. In this work, we compare design and user metaphors across three different platforms: ChatGPT, Twitter, and YouTube. We build on prior methods to elicit 554 user metaphors, as well as ratings on how well each metaphor describes users' experiences. We then identify 21 design metaphors by analyzing each platform's historical web presence since their launch date. We find that design metaphors often do not match the metaphors that users use to describe their experiences. Even when design and user metaphors do match, the metaphors do not always resonate universally. Through these findings, we highlight how comparing design and user metaphors can help to evaluate and refine metaphors for user experience.
Comments: Accepted at CHI 2026
Subjects:
Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
Cite as: arXiv:2603.27908 [cs.HC]
(or arXiv:2603.27908v1 [cs.HC] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.27908
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790676
DOI(s) linking to related resources
Submission history
From: Beleicia Bullock [view email] [v1] Sun, 29 Mar 2026 23:32:37 UTC (9,819 KB)
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