Semiotic Foundations of HCI and UX Design - Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design - page 11

interaction context. For our purposes the category of manner is also important, which
aims at presenting clear, well-structured information:
1. Avoid obscurity of expression.
2. Avoid ambiguity.
3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
4. Be orderly.
(Grice, 1975, p. 46)
Information theory is thus concerned with the lexical and syntactic dimension of
semiotics. “The role that signs play in information processes (that is, in semiotic
interactions) is determined by the properties of the sign; in turn, sign properties
are determined by the kind of sign and its structure” (Pearson and Slamecka, 1977,
p. 5). There is a close resemblance with the communication model first described
by Shannon (Shannon, 1948, p. 381). If we focus solely on the lexical and syntactic
dimensions of the model, we get an information source as the first communication
component, followed by an encoder, and the physical medium of a communication
channel. In the semiotic interaction “we first generate the semiotic context of a sign
for communication; next, we add a shape to the sign and its context; and finally, we
embody the sign in some physical medium so that the communication can actually
be carried out” (Pearson and Slamecka, 1977, p. 26).
In HCI/UX design we are choosing signs that our users (or audience) would be
able to perceive well, because “signs are the vehicle of perception, and the denotata of
signs are the objects of perception. Perception as a semiotic, or information, process
is similar to communication” (Pearson and Slamecka, 1977, p. 27). By perceiving,
we already participate in communication and interaction. “ To perceive is to select;
to apprehend the world is to learn the rules of perceptual selection” (Moles, 1966,
p. 60).
This perspective is shared with information science, which “deals with the pro-
cesses of storing and transferring information” (Merriam-Webster, 2013d). In this
context the basic sign in HCI is information. Here, we are entering into the semantic
dimension of semiotics, because information, in general terms, is the unity of data
and meaning (Floridi, 2010, p. 20). It is important to note, however, that the data
“constituting information can be meaningful independently of an informee” (Ibid.,
p. 22). Raber and Budd (2003), for example, views semiotics and information science
as concerned with representation and the production of culture. They conclude, that
“the relationship between representation and what is being represented, are at the
heart of information science” (Ibid., p. 225). The cultural background of the commu-
nicators determine which information can be transmitted: “(a) Semantic information,
having a universal logic, structured, articulable, translatable into a foreign language,
serves in the behaviorist conception to prepare actions. (b) Instead of to a univer-
sal repertoire, esthetic information, which is untranslatable, refers to the repertoire
of knowledge common to the particular transmitter and particular receptor” (Moles,
1966, p. 129). Moreover, “[e]sthetic information is specific to the channel which trans-
mits it; it is profoundly changed by being transferred from one channel to another”
(Ibid., p. 131), for example, reading a printed topic conveys different information than
reading it online, or by listening to an audiobook.