I’m exploring (hey, that’s a metaphor too) an exercise where I (over?)extend a root metaphor to see just how well it could help me tell a particular story. The story is about a client engagement from a User Experience perspective. I’m trying to thread together a discussion. here goes:
Cruise ship as project…
- Goal: Get from point A to Point (n)
- Change of direction is hard and slow going (obvious one)
- Launch is always a party
- The navigation system is key to maintain the course
- We get onboard with the client
- Sometimes we board while at sea
- Sometimes we have to finish the ship before we can launch
- Hope to not sink
- Hope to not hit something really big
- Get involved with the activities on board
- A shuffleboard game could build a key relationship
- Our challenge is to plan the course, usually while we are already cruising
- You can only take so many shots to the hull before it bursts
- Sometimes pirates take over the ship
- Something about there being no one at the helm
- Something about Isaac from Love Boat
- Some journeys run out of gas and are left adrift
- Some sink
- Even the wreckage can tell a story
Other general nautical metaphors:
found on Wiki-pedia. Thought starters to extend further –
“Thanks to the historical importance of seafaring in British culture, the English language is rich in related metaphors from the age of sail. Some examples are:
- Taken aback
- Batten down the hatches
- Clear the decks
- Loaded to the gunwales
- Back and fill
- On one’s beam ends
- Awash
- Nail one’s colours to the mast
- Flying the flag
- Plain sailing
- With flying colours
- In the doldrums
- All hands to the pumps
- Take soundings
- Weathering a storm
- Swinging the lead
- All set
- Left high and dry
- May the wind always be at your back and may you have following seas”
Other finds:
- A Schedule Is A Moving Object
- Book: Metaphorically Selling (Paperback)
- Book: I Never Metaphor I Didn’t Like: A Comprehensive Compilation of History’s Greatest Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes
Has legs, but i don’t know yet if i’ll run with it. only sea legs (rim shot).
