Understanding the User Interfaces Through Spatial Metaphors

This study focuses on spatial metaphors in digital interfaces that designers use in their modeling processes. When designers themselves perform an action by using a digital tool, they often make spatial inferences without realizing it, with the help of their mental models and established modeling experiences. In order to trace these implicit spatial metaphors, the spatial metaphors used by the designers were discussed through their verbal expressions. Within the scope of the pilot case study, the participants told each other the 3D models given to them verbally, and the other participant made the 3D model simultaneously with the narrative. The metaphors that the participant in the role of the narrator used with the intention of making a spatial description allowed the participant in the role of the modeler to build spatial relations. This study, which has the potential to provide a spatial framework for interfaces in the future, is a step toward designing new user interface metaphors.