Semiotic Foundations of HCI and UX Design - Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design - page 19

paradigm of use which is not always visualized. When built correctly, the UI lets
us see only what has to be seen. The UI itself stands on a certain HCI ideology. It
defines relations which are to be made. The relations made by ideology are political
inasmuch as they are social.
While the prevalent UI definition is connected with a gateway as a passage into
another world, beyond the entrance this world is structured by another narrative. By
analyzing the narrative, we can gain a better insight into the UI structure and the
underlying HCI ideology:

In temporal terms, narrative is about what already happened while simulation is about
what could happen. Because of its static essence, narrative has been used by our culture
to make statements. ( ... ) The potential of simulation is not as a conveyor of values, but
as a way to explore the mechanics of dynamic systems.

(Frasca, 2004, p. 86)

2.3.2 E VALUATIVE POWER

The user is presented with information “designed to program the spectators of techno-
images to behave in a specific way and this in turn serves as a feedback to the programs
calculating these techno-images” (Flusser, 1995). Here, techno-images are computer-
generated images in Flusser's theory. Let's take the example of Google Earth (see
Figure 2.2), which builds up on our

belief that a map covers a concrete phenomenon, my “taking for true.” The function of
my map—and of all the techno-images—lies in the effort to impose on me a programmed
idea of a concrete world, thus to program my cognition and evaluation of the world and
all of my acting in the world.

(Flusser, 1995)

Therefore, for building new UIs, we ought to deconstruct the present ones and
uncover their design/intent. Winograd and Flores also suggest this by stating that:
“design is the interaction between understanding a creation [We therefore] need

to set up a theoretical framework not to watch how the devices operate, but what
they cause” (Winograd and Flores, 1987, p. 53). This is frequently the only way
to understand new UIs in a situation when we do not have a suitable interpretation
key—we do not know their code. It is, in a way, something like “reverse engineering”
known from computer science.

...

2.3.3 A CTION ORIENTATION

In order to use the UI, different languages are present in the form of action paradigms.
“Action paradigms define a set of instructions that are available at any given moment.
The paradigms offered by the system should match those the user needs so that
she's not forced to perform an action she didn't intend” (Andersen, 1997, p. 91). For
example, take the interaction game for putting the computer to sleep in Microsoft
Windows XP. Here the user has to first click on Start, then Shut Down, only then is
he or she presented with the intended Sleep button. Thus, for putting the computer to