A framework of product design by metaphor

Design by metaphor is one of the primary activities of designers’ conceptualization of new products. Literature suggests metaphor plays an important role in problem solving while theorizing on good metaphors in design is still in its early stages. Focusing on the notions of category dissimilarity, object similarity, and salience imbalance, this paper proposes a framework of metaphorical design based on three hypotheses on good metaphorical designs. The hypotheses are tested by an experiment in which 62 undergraduates of a university rate three groups of stimuli. Results show all the hypotheses are strongly supported. The target and source of good metaphorical designs have the significant category dissimilarity, object similarity, and the salience imbalance of object similarity. Therefore, the framework has potentials to describe and explain the goodness for understanding the metaphorical meaning of products, as well as to develop guidelines for design by metaphor