User experience design (UX), grounded in human-computer interaction, has moved beyond the palm of the hand and to change our expectations of physical space. In a digital world analogy communicates through familiarity, teases ontology, and provides access.
When it works well, UX design breaks down resistance to new technologies by drawing on intuition and using the familiar to lighten the cognitive load. For example, you don’t need to think when you see that camera icon on your iPhone; the recognition is instinctive. In this far-from-dehumanizing context, technology becomes friendlier as the phone’s capabilities are easily recognized and accessed.