Revisiting Metaphor as an Analytical Tool for Design Research

Metaphor has long been a topic of investigation in scholarly design research. Studies across various design contexts have demonstrated the value of deliberately exploring and using metaphors to facilitate different phases of the design process. However, the analytical potential of metaphors has often been overshadowed by their generative use, leaving their significance in the research phase of the design process relatively unexplored. This article aims to broaden our understanding of the role metaphors can play in design, delving into the analytical role of metaphors in human-centered design research, particularly focusing on the insights that users’ and other stakeholders’ metaphors can offer. We present the rationale for adopting metaphor analysis as a method for design research, drawing on conceptual metaphor theory and evidence from analogous research studies. Acknowledging the natural creativity in language use of ordinary people, we argue for the potential this inherent creativity holds for user research and co-creativity settings. We discuss the value of attending to the metaphors in design research, introduce relevant concepts from linguistic metaphor analysis, and demonstrate their practical application on designers’ use of user metaphors. We address the advantages and challenges of adopting metaphor analysis as a method for design research and provide recommendations for designers seeking to instrumentalize metaphors in their design processes.