Metaphor and the Cognitive Representation of Computing Systems
John M. Carroll, John Charles Thomas · IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics · 1982
In learning, people develop new cognitive structures by metaphorically extending old ones. The metaphors spontaneously generated by new users will predict the ease with which they can master a computer system. Systems which through their interface suggest inefficacious metaphors will accordingly be more difficult to learn and to that extent unacceptable.