Design and Professional Languages

Abstract

This paper is about the design of computer systems and the professional language of its users. In the first part of the paper, we present an investigation of the professional language of the three employees at a library. The focus of our attention is the intensive use of metaphors. The investigation supports the idea of using metaphors in design since use of metaphors is one way of relating to the previous experiences of the employees. In the second part of the paper, we present a linguistic approach to design of a computer system. Our approach is related to ideas of K. Nygaard. He has suggested that a careful examination of the professional language of the users should be followed by enriching the professional language through concepts related to informatics. We suggest an approach, not of planned language change, but an approach where the professional language is taken as the starting point for design. We present a concrete way of making a linguistic analysis of the professional language and we show how the linguistic choices may be transposed into a number of design choices. As an illustration of our appraoch, we use the material from the first part of the paper that documents the physical space metaphor.