Oh man, the madness of desktop literalism in GUI design in the mid-90s. The more "subtle" metaphors of files and folders blown far past skeumorphism and into im

Oh man, the madness of desktop literalism in GUI design in the mid-90s. The more "subtle" metaphors of files and folders blown far past skeumorphism and into immediately literal graphic representations of a "desk" with a "phone" and a "rolodex". These guys went full-in and represented buildings and cities. It was such a transitional time, people who had never had personal access to a computing device suddenly trying to figure out how nested file structures work, saving documents, and running software all were mind-blowing concepts for the average adult moving from a world of paper. The term "paperless office" was tossed around as a far future goal. For those who never worked in an office in the 80s or 90s, the amount of paper and paper handling tools needed to function at even a basic level was absolutely unreal. https://weare.guru/office-life-in-the-1980s-vintage-photos/ https://weare.guru/office-life-in-the-1980s-vintage-photos/ Ignore the computing tech in the pictures and look at the tons of fire-hazard ready paper literally everywhere. It didn't die in the 90s either. I remember getting a demo from a vendor in the early 2000s for a chat system that used a very literal city metaphor to organize chat rooms. Because of course the word "room" was used and that implied they had to reverse out from their into buildings, and city blocks, and cities. So navigating to different rooms involved all kinds of clicking around town. We, habitual corporate IRC users, were not impressed.