The effectiveness of the electronic city metaphor for organizing the menus of Free‐Nets

Metaphors are used in the design of systems to ameliorate complexities, to exploit prior knowledge, and to enhance the user's understanding of the system. In this study, we examined the electronic city metaphor adopted by Free‐Nets, the average citizen's medium for accessing electronic community information. The electronic city metaphor represents a categorized set of menus as buildings in a mythical city. To examine this metaphor, we compared the performance of two groups of university student subjects who used a simulated Free‐Net to find answers to simple factual questions. One group used an interface that embodied the electronic city metaphor, while the other group used an interface with labels composed from everyday language. Subjects used the simulated Free‐Net in two sessions, about a week apart. Results were assessed using three performance measures: Number of top‐level menu choices used, number of correct answers, and amount of time taken to respond to questions. Preference ratings were also obtained. Results indicated that both groups performed about equally in the first session, but that only the subjects who used the everyday language menu showed a learning effect over time. Subjects in both groups expressed a definite preference for the non‐metaphor interface. The results raise questions about the utility of this type of metaphor, especially to represent categorized lists. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.