The first art of interaction design is invention. But once you have an idea, you have to express it through visualization. Thus, the second art of interaction design is that of visualization, and that's where tropes come in.A trope is a figure of speech, thought, or action that is a way of turning something literal into something else, something figurative. Design is all about changing the literal into the figurative. Applying tropes is a way to do that. They suggest other possibilities. There are hundred of tropes, but all of them fit into what Kenneth Burke calls the Four Master Tropes: Metaphor, Metonomy, Synecdoche, and Irony. They are all ways of getting at "the Truth."
Metaphor is about perspective. Finding the that in this. Current interface design is all about metaphor. The problem with them is that they decay rapidly and can quickly become meaningless.
Metonomy is about reducing ethereal things to their physical embodiment. A heart for love, for example. This is a favorite among young designers.
Synecdoche (pronounced sin-ECK-doh-key) is about connected views; a part representing the whole or the whole a part. Micro-and macrocosm. A map is an example.
Irony tries to capture the difference between opinion and truth, revealing two levels of meaning: a literal one and a deeper one. Irony doesn't work until you see the second meaning. Minard's famous map of Napoleon's Russian campaign is an excellent example of irony.
The Four Master Tropes are used to open up possibilities as to what an image could be. You take the raw material, then use the tropes to begin your interpretation. They orient you to a way of thinking and help give visualization shape.
