Semiotic Foundations of HCI and UX Design - Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design - page 12

The representational and cultural production role of semiotics and information
science reduces uncertainty in communication and interaction, or entropy. Entropy
is “the measure of the amount of information conveyed by a message from a source.
The more we know about what message the source will produce, the less uncertainty,
or entropy, and the less the information” (Pierce, 1980, p. 23). Entropy can be re-
duced also by excluding, what is meaningless to the recipient. As Luhmann (1995)
points out, humans reduce complexity through meaning. “Language is a medium
distinguished by the use of signs[ ]. This leads to problems of complexity that are

solved by rules for the use of signs, by reducing complexity, and by settling into a
bounded combinatory capability” (Ibid., p. 160), that is, complexity in HCI can be
reduced by implementing a grammar for visible and interaction elements (for de-
tails see Section 2.4, “UI languages”). Such grammar builds user's expectations by
structuring the meaning (semantic dimension) of signs. As Luhmann further points
out, “every specific meaning qualifies itself by suggesting specific possibilities of
connection and making others improbable [

...

]. Meaning is consequently—in form,
not in content—the rendering of complexity, that [

...

] permits access at a given point
but that simultaneously identifies every such access as a selection” (Ibid., p. 61).
Moreover, “[n]ot all systems process complexity and self-reference in the form of
meaning; but for those that do, it is the only possibility. Meaning becomes for them
the form of the world and consequently overlaps the difference between system and
environment” (Ibid.). In HCI, it is analogous to a perception of a flow in immersive
interaction.

...

2.2 ACTORS, AUDIENCES, PARADIGMS
In regard to analyzing the UI in terms of language we use other related disciplines,
namely linguistics. We build upon the argument, that “linguistics is a part of semi-
otics,” as stated by Cassirer (1945, p. 115; cited from Noth, 1995, p. 229). Our semiotic
method is based on the assumption that HCI concerns different actors (users, systems,
designers) in a setting, or paradigm. Thus, the interaction can be seen as a form of
discourse or conversation.
The process of HCI/UX design could be described as a form of storytelling, which
makes us work mostly within the pragmatic dimension of semiotics. Here, we work
with at least two actors. An actor can be the user or the system (computing agents); it
can also be the designer of the system. There can be multiple users interacting with
a system, as well as multiple systems interacting with the user. There can be users
interacting among themselves directly or through the system. In this way we end up
in a complex situation, which requires our attention on a technical, psychological,
and social level of semiotics. Therefore it is here, where we discuss the work context,
user's needs, and requirements. From the designer's perspective, the system he or
she creates is directed towards the audience of the (potential) users. In this way we
focus on the different types of users, and how to address them in the best possible
(rhetorical) manner. This manner ranges from types of access to the system (or types
of distribution), to the use of UI language, which we are going to define in Section 2.4,
“UI languages.” Here we intend to discuss market segments and personas. The created
system takes the form of a paradigm in our context.