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Not really - it is not very intuitive that you put folders into folders and have all your documents in one big folder containing all your other folders. And you
by olavk 14y ago
Not really - it is not very intuitive that you put folders into folders and have all your documents in one big folder containing all your other folders. And you don't have drawers containing other drawers either, in the real world.
But apart from bad metaphors, I thing non-geeks have a problem with organizing things in arbitrary deep hierarchies. You don't really do that a lot outside of computing.
- sho_hn 14y agoWhen I started out using computers, an adult explained it to me using a shelf as a metaphor: The drive is a shelf. You can have multiple shelves. Shelves have compartments, which contain things. Some of those things can contain other things, like boxes or folders. Made the nesting rather obvious to me.
- gaius 14y agoSure you do, it's common in any sort of industry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_materials http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_materials
- crististm 14y agoIndeed but not quite. Inside drawers you have shelves. On the shelves you have boxes. In the boxes you have folders, envelopes, files... There's more: in the files you have pictures, frames, tables
- olavk 14y agoI should probaly have said recursive hierarchies is not intuitive for everyone. Everyone can understand shelves in drawers, boxes on shelves and so on. What is confusing to many is folders inside folders or drawers inside drawers arbitrarily deep.
- icebraining 14y agoI've never seen anyone having trouble with putting little boxes inside bigger boxes.
- kristopolous 14y agoMaybe we should call them matryoshkas?