About Face的第17章“Rethinking Files and Save”介绍了这一点。Alan Cooper是著名的可用性专家，他的著作很有影响力。他的观点基本上是，当我们强迫用户考虑实现时，我们就会陷入麻烦。以下是一段简短的摘录:

In the world of digital technology, the place where implementation-model thinking most strikingly rears its ugly head is the management of files and the concept of "save." If you have ever tried to teach your mother how to use a computer, you will know that difficult doesn't really do the problem justice. Things start out all right: You start up the word processor and type a couple sentences. She's with you all the way -- it's like writing on paper. But when you click the Close button, up pops a dialog box asking "Do you want to save changes?" You and Mom hit a wall together. She looks at you and asks, "What does this mean? Is everything okay?" This problem is caused by software that forces people to think like computers by unnecessarily making them confront the internal mechanisms of data storage. This isn't just a problem for your mother; even sophisticated computer users can easily become confused or make mistakes. People spend thousands of dollars on hard- ware and software just to confront impertinent questions like "Do you really want me to save this document that you've been working on all afternoon?" and must remember to use to the Save As... command when what they really want to do is work on a copy of the document.

有必要考虑如何简化或消除“保存”的比喻。

在Stack Overflow上，我们可以“发布一个答案”或“添加评论”或“询问你的问题”。每次我们都真正地“保存”到数据库中，但是每次的比喻都略有不同。发帖、补充、询问。我想到了像iTunes这样的软件，我相信它没有“将音乐保存到磁盘”的概念。你只需向它添加音乐，它就会被保存。根据软件执行的任务类型，可能有不同的比喻比保存更合适。

我应该提一下，我还没有真正回答你的问题，我自己在我的网络应用程序中使用过软盘图标，或者一个只写着“保存”的大按钮。目前，我们在很多情况下都被它困住了，但随着软盘驱动器的消亡，它变得越来越荒谬。但是，当拨号界面的电话已经几十年没有普及使用时，我们也说我们“拨号”电话。

尽管很多人不知道这个图标到底是什么，但他们很快就会明白它的意思，所以我会保持它与其他应用程序的一致性。

在未来，我认为这个问题将变得毫无意义，因为越来越多的应用程序将避免“保存”操作，并自动保存每个用户操作。人们将使用“撤消”作为丢弃更改的主导范式，而不是通过不保存来丢弃更改。

我认为这种方法是有道理的:

为什么我们需要“保存”功能?我写的任何东西都应该被自动保存，事实上Microsoft Word已经做到了这一点——如果它崩溃了，而且还没有保存，你的数据仍然是可以恢复的。谷歌自动保存草案。为什么我们还在使用“保存”范式?

It's funny that I found this discussion because I was looking for a standard 'save' icon I could download to replace the 'new and improved' icon that UtlraEdit started using and which was too difficult to pick out on the toolbar. Yes, it is outdated, but everybody recognizes the 3.5" floppy disk image as representing 'save'! Yes, programmers should not be doing things because 'that's the way it's always been done' but icons are language and not methodology. Don't invent a new word just because it would be cool unless your aim is to hide what you are saying from the previous generations.

如果您使用软盘图标，使用您的应用程序的用户将发现它更有用。为了一致性，如果能让你感觉好点。它是无处不在的。