DocumentMetaphor

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Representing sets of digital data in a form mimicking that of paper documents is very widespread today. It's so popular, in fact, that we often don't even notice.

This metaphor is closely related to the WYSIWYG paradigm -- if the data was supposed to be printed, and you wanted to follow WYSIWYG, it's natural to represent the data laid out somehow on a (virtual) sheet of paper.

Does this tendency result from the fact that both the page of paper and the screen display are two dimensional canvases upon which our communications must take place?

Discussion

Don't you how you feel about it, but I would include a lot of additional details into the DocumentMetaphor, the ability to give it an arbitrary name and handle it within the file/directory system. It is created and can be deleted. It is developed in arbitrary open / edit / save cycles. A document has parts that can be cut, copied and pasted. So, in a way, e.g. a GIF picture, a POWERPOINT presentation, an EXCEL sheet and a ACCESS database use the document metaphor, imho. -- HelmutLeitner

I feel that grouping data into data sets with associated name, data format and often also default application (commonly called files) may be different (although probably related) than making those data sets actually behave like documents, represented as some kind of virtual sheet of paper, with contents layed out on two dimensional canvas. In fact, the latter is often in conflict with the former -- when a single "document" contains in fact multiple data sets in varying formats, like when you embed vector graphics, digital photographs and text together in a single document. Systems that lean towards the DocumentMetaphor will put all the data together, systems that are more into the... umm... say, FileMetaphor?, will rather put the data in different formats in multiple data sets, and use some mechanisms to refer to them. Hybrid approaches, where the data is stored in multiple sets, but the sets are themselves grouped (stored in a directory or archive) is also possible -- e.g. the Open Document Format does that. I must admit I didn't think about FileMetaphor? at all when I saw DocumentMetaphor -- maybe what I described would more accurately fit under PageMetaphor? or just WYSIWYG? -- RadomirDopieralski

I think there is no FileMetaphor?, because "file" is not used metaphoriacally (actually the FileMetaphor? *is* used on a very technical level, in the Unix/Linux file system that has directory entries that look like files but are something quite different, e. g. a "pipe") . "document" is used metaphorically, because document/text/word processing was the major application that brought people into contact with computers. For many people the UI of the WORD program is the interface through which they see the computer. Many don't even know about files, but they handle documents. And so they are allowed to handle other data/file formats in a similar way where it fits better (presentations, pictures) or less (video). Sometimes the "document" is then called a "project" (software, video), or a "workspace", but this doesn't change the character of interactions. -- HelmutLeitner

Hmm... I agree, it seems that I described it from too technical a standpoint, falling for the old trap. I was thinking about Z/OS's "datasets" and "members", about mailbox's "messages", about iTunes' "music database", gmail's "conversations" and, last but not least, wiki's "pages" as alternative to files. But it's a difference irrelevenat for the users, all they see is "documents". -- RadomirDopieralski

CategoryMetaphor CategoryPattern