Marco.org: Overdoing the interface metaphor
We’re often told that we should design our websites and software to mimic real-life objects. The iPhone strengthened this idiom, and Apple has been driving this home hard for the iPad.
But it’s not absolute, and it’s not always the best idea. My favorite counterexample is the typical calculator…
Another classic example of this is the music player. The big innovation of iTunes was to get away from trying to create a stereo metaphor (aka winamp) and make the playlist the center of attention. The success of iPod owes as much to the design of iTunes as it does to the device itself.
