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Metaphors for Designers Working with AI

A peer-reviewed conference paper from DRS 2022 that examines how metaphors shape designers' understanding of machine learning and AI systems, exploring both where common metaphors mislead and what qualities make metaphors genuinely useful for design thinking.

research.tudelft.nl ↗
Published Tended 22 April 2026 Maturity 🪴 Plant AI AI-assisted My ideas and structure, AI helped refine.
Mycelium tags, relations, arguments & questions

Relations

  • black box metaphor metaphor-for machine learning systems
  • learning and training metaphor metaphor-for machine learning model development
  • AI metaphors characterised-as simultaneously illuminating and concealing
  • AI metaphors leads-to epistemic bias
  • common ML metaphors risks misleading designers about AI system behaviour
  • anthropomorphism caused-by learning and training metaphor
  • design thinking requires carefully chosen metaphors for machine learning
  • machine learning metaphors contrasted-with conceptual foundations of AI
  • paper attributed-to Dave Murray-Rust
  • paper attributed-to Irene Nicenboim
  • paper attributed-to Dan Lockton
  • useful metaphors better-fits design thinking about AI systems
  • design practice presupposes conceptual foundations of AI

What this post argues beta

  • Metaphors and framing in AI design
  • Critical design thinking for machine learning
  • Conceptual foundations of human-AI interaction
  • Design epistemology

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