What Happened to the Desktop Metaphor?

For a long time, personal computers tried very hard to explain themselves. You had a desktop. On that desktop were files and folders. Programs opened in windows. Commands were grouped into menus. If you wanted to move something, you dragged it somewhere else. If you wanted to throw it away, there was usually a trash can or recycle bin waiting for it. None of that was accidental. Early graphical interfaces borrowed heavily from the physical office because computers were unfamiliar and needed a way to make abstract operations understandable. A folder on a screen was not really a folder, of course, but the metaphor gave users a mental model for what the computer was doing. That model was never perfect, but it was remarkably successful. What interests me now is how much of it modern software has gradually hidden. The Desktop Was an Explanation The traditional desktop interface exposed a great deal of the computer’s structure. Files existed in particular places. Folders contained other…