{"slug": "objects-of-design-metaphor", "title": "Objects of Design Metaphor", "summary": "A design enthusiast highlighted the creative use of visual metaphors, such as a butterfly combined with a jumper, and called on AI researchers to develop evaluations for symbolic thinking in the visual domain. The post cited the old MacBook's sleeping indicator LED, which faded in and out at a human-like heart rate, as a beautiful example of a design metaphor that added emotional depth without driving sales.", "body_md": "# Objects of Design Metaphor\n\n##### May 28, 2026\n\nI love this sort of stuff. To me it’s a very creative thing, sort of like a design metaphor.\n\nYou have two distinct objects - butterfly and jumper - and then some expression of one in terms of another, which just fits.\n\nDear AI researchers - please make an eval for this. Why can’t an AI think **symbolically** in the visual domain? (maybe using something like [DreamCoder](https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.08381)?)\n\nThe one example I can think of why this is interesting - the old Macbook genuinely used to **breathe**. It had a sleeping indicator LED that faded in and out at a rate similar to the human heartrate. A beautiful design metaphor. [Just a little detail that wouldn’t sell anything](https://unsung.aresluna.org/just-a-little-detail-that-wouldnt-sell-anything/).\n\n[Back to blog](/blog/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/objects-of-design-metaphor", "canonical_source": "https://liamzebedee.com/design/articles/objects-of-design-metaphor/", "published_at": "2026-05-28 02:24:31+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-28 02:57:03.318501+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-research", "computer-vision"], "entities": ["DreamCoder", "Macbook"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/objects-of-design-metaphor", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/objects-of-design-metaphor.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/objects-of-design-metaphor.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/objects-of-design-metaphor.jsonld"}}