Metaphors...

Metaphors are in the air…

Yesterday, I was listening to Terry Gross on Fresh Air talking with Bill Moyers about the election. At one point, Bill Moyers quoted Joseph Campbell, “If you want to change a culture, you need to change the metaphor.” This crystallized something I’ve been wrangling with and helped me think about being more conscious of metaphors.

Metaphors are wonderful ways for us to convey concepts and help people understand what to do next. They are, of course, critical to the design profession and the history of computing. But, how often do we consciously consider our metaphors?

Nancy Duarte, from Duarte Design, wrote a blog entry today about using visual metaphors. She leverages political cartoons to convey her message… and has some excellent advice about being more purposeful in our metaphors and helping our “audience” experience the joy of discovery as they unravel the metaphor.

What are some metaphors that have informed your work?

Outside-In

A famous biochemist, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, once said, "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought."

• What do lightbulbs and old-time kerosene bottles have in common? One of Edison's employees was trying to solve the problem of having lightbulbs stay in the socket, and he noticed how kerosene bottles kept their lids on... and "viola!" we have the screw-in lightbulb socket that still exists today.
  

• What do Botan Rice Candy and Mouthwash have in common? The makers of Listerine were looking for a way to innovate mouthwash, and the melting rice wrapper of Botan Rice Candy came to their attention... and Listerine ThinStrips were born.
  

• What does a walking a dog in the woods have to do with a method for adhering two objects? George de Mestral went out for a walk with his dog in the woods and when he returned he noticed a lot of little burrs clinging to his pants. He recognized the potential of little micro-hooks and invented "Velcro".
  

Each of these were combined to come up with new innovations. In each case, someone looked at a current solution for something and saw the potential of applying that solution to solve a completely different problem.

All too often, when we are trying to find problems and solutions, we stick to looking at our customers, the particular problems they point out and the particular solutions they use.

But the opportunity for disruptive innovation is greatly increased by looking outside of the problem. I want to inspire my colleagues and peers to spend more time looking outside to solve their problems. For this, I'd like more stories...

I'm looking for other examples of inventions that were inspired by solutions to other problems. Do you have any that I can use?