A Semiotic Approach to Designing Interfaces

When using a digital product, who (or what) are you interacting with? The device? The interface? The data? The content? It may seem like a simple question but the answer has a profound effect on how we design digital products.

Most of us are familiar with user-centered design principles. The dominant view of this approach is that you are interacting with the interface, or the computer (hence the term human-computer interaction). But I’d like to talk about a less known approach, which views the interface as a medium of communication, rather than a source.

What difference does this point of view make? I’ll attempt to answer this question using the classic communication and cognition theories, as well as practical examples, case studies, and insights from user testing. I’ll also explain the reasons behind some of the common flaws in our assumptions and design decisions we make.

Transcript

1. A semiotic approach to designing interfaces Alla Kholmatova @craftui
4. What is semiotics?
6. Positive instruction Cycle Cycles only Warning Train Level crossing ahead Order Bus No buses
9. Who or what are you interacting with?
10. Semiotic approach vs user-centered design
11. U
14. Semiotic approach
15. for applying semiotic theory in practice 4 lessons
16. Start with language Lesson 1
17. We’re not designing pages, we’re designing systems of components. Stephen Hay, Responsive Design Workflow “
19. Brackets Run progress Standfirst Billboard Whisper box Course block Spotlight Cards Standard Promo
22. View interactions as sentences Lesson 2
28. Treat icons as basic signs Lesson 3
31. Iconic “Heart” Symbolic Indexical
32. Iconic Symbolic
35. Consider source orientation when writing copy Lesson 4
38. Yours vs mine dilemma
42. The Semiotic Engineering of Human-computer Interaction Clarisse Sieckenius De Souza A Theory of Computer Semiotics: Semiotic Approaches to Construction and Assessment of Computer Systems Peter Bøgh Andersen Human-what interaction? Understanding user source orientation. Jacob Solomon & Rick Wash Signs, Language and Behavior Charles Morris Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language Umberto Eco Course in General Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure Selected Writings Charles S. Peirce Source Orientation in Human- Computer Interaction S.Sundar & C.Nass
43. Thank you Alla Kholmatova @craftui