What’s the Internet? Ask a friend. Most people will have a hard time telling you. They can tell you what the Internet can do – or what they can do with the Internet, but that’s about it.

The Internet is the worldwide, publicly accessible network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a network of networks that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services (Wikipedia).

Ok, wait a minute. Back up. The Internet is what?!

The Internet can be difficult to describe – and even more difficult to comprehend. So how did it become so popular? How did it get so many users? Well-experienced designers helped out a lot with that. We knew that people didn’t have to really understand the Internet in order to use it. We knew that all we had to do was take what users already knew about the real world and leverage it – to use life as a metaphor for Internet design. And we did.

The Internet is rarely described as a network of interconnected data transmission networks. It’s more often described as the information superhighway. These words make the Internet sound easy to understand. Most people don’t understand data transmission and networks, but they do understand driving down a really big highway. Internet gaming companies like Second Life are using metaphors too. Second Life is calling their customers Residents. It’s easier for gamers to think of themselves as residents in an online world when compared to paying customers. But it’s not just the Internet that benefits from metaphors, it’s applications too. Consider MS Office. In Office, you have “files” and “folders” that you can put on your “desktop.” You have a “notepad.” You have an “inbox” and an “outbox.” Coincidence? I think not.

Metaphors can benefit design when they make sense. But sometimes they get confusing. Take the Apple trash can. It’s the only way to get your disk out of an Apple computer – short of using a modified paperclip. You have to drag the disk icon with important files that you want to save to the very place that you would never put them in the real world – a trashcan. This goes against the grain. And speaking of paper clips, take Microsoft’s Clippie, MS agent of irritation. Think about the way you feel when he appears, asking you if you need help with what could be the most basic office task – writing a letter. Some of us have used some choice words in situations like these, others have been caught banging on our keyboards - as if Clippie will hear us, as if he will keep himself in check next time. We would fire an office assistant like this in the real world. In a real world office, Clippie wouldn’t last a day.

There are some things that technology can do that I can’t do in life. And it leaves me wishing for things that can never be. Sometimes I make mistakes in the real world…like dropping my lunch on the break room floor…or accidentally saying ‘Hi’ to someone who I don’t know…or deleting a TV show that my husband TiVo’d before he watches it. In times like these, I often catch myself searching for the undo button. But there’s no undo button for life. And that’s a shame. With the Internet, you have the metaphors of Life + so much more. In the real world, you just have Life.