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wayfinding-physical-spatial-metaphors

Use this skill when deciding whether (and how) to borrow physical-world wayfinding metaphors for software — rooms, doors, paths, maps, landmarks. Trigger when designing app shells with multiple "spaces," when picking metaphors for navigation (workspace, channel, board, project), when reviewing skeuomorphic vs. flat navigation choices, or when the user mentions "feels like a maze" or "where's the front door of this app." Sub-aspect of `wayfinding`; read that first.

plugins/HDeibler/universal-design-principles/plugins/cognition-and-learnability-principles/skills/wayfinding-physical-spatial-metaphors/SKILL.md

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# Wayfinding through physical-spatial metaphors

Software navigation borrows from physical-world wayfinding all the time — sometimes deliberately, often by accident. "Folders" mimic filing cabinets; "rooms" and "channels" mimic conference rooms; "boards" and "lists" mimic whiteboards; "drilling down" and "zooming out" are spatial verbs. Used well, these metaphors give users an instant cognitive map. Used carelessly, they create expectations the software can't meet.

## When physical metaphors help

The metaphor must satisfy three conditions to be net-positive:

1. **The user already knows the source.** A "folder" works because filing cabinets are universal. A "Kanban board" works for users who know Kanban; less for those who don't.
2. **The mapping is consistent.** If your "rooms" can be entered, exited, and have walls, then they should *behave* like rooms — opening one closes the other (or layers it visibly), entering signals a context shift, leaving returns to the previous space.
3. **The user gains something the metaphor uniquely provides.** Spatial metaphors usually provide spatial intuitions: where things are relative to each other, what's nearby, what's deeper.

When all three hold, the metaphor offloads cognitive work to the user's existing model.