Semiotic Design and Evaluation Framework - Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design - page 37

through a sequence of screens. These elements do not perceptually appear in some
static form, but are enacted through the user's activities with the computer. The global
narration can be further supported by design (and analysis) methods already known
from theater (Laurel, 1993; Aristotle in Barnes, 1984; Barthes, 1977; Eco 1979),
film (film grammar, as in Eisenstein, 1969) or comics (e.g., Cohn, 2005 and 2007
which applies a linguistic model to the sequence comics panels; see also McCloud,
1994).
The designer's argumentation can be supported also by different types of meta-
communication, which further support the communication to the user by providing
more details in the UI. The UI parts can be the accompanying documentation, help,
tips, splash screens, introductions, etc . Designer's metacommunication, being a uni-
directional communication (or a “one-shot-message” according to de Souza, 2005,
p. 84), takes the form of narration, that augments what the screens by themselves say
to the user.
The narrative perspective is used in different usability assessment methods for the
user's part in the form of think-aloud protocols (e.g., de Souza, 2005) or scenarios
(Carroll, 2000). The main benefit of the narration concept is that it directs the attention
to the (textual, visual, etc.) flow of communication, which can be analyzed with proven
semiotic and linguistic methods.

3.1.4 R HETORICAL TROPES

Rhetorical tropes are devices of persuasion and emphasis. As such they are employed
by the HCI ideology. They are often present as metaphors. Several topics about
semiotics discuss rhetorical tropes, that is, figures of speech used for persuasion and
emphasis, including one source that lists over 1000 tropes (Lanham, 1991). Marcus
(1983) also discusses rhetorical tropes in visual communication.
Following on from the semiotics/linguistics framework, one can identify inter-
action rhetorical tropes, or specific techniques of interaction and communication.
These techniques include, among others, devices of substitution, namely metaphor,
metonymy, prosopopoeia, and synecdoche. Metaphor “(a carrying across): some-
thing is described as if it were something else” (Marcus, 1983, p. 4). Metonymy is
“a type of metaphor in which an associated symbol is substituted the thing itself”
(Ibid.). Prosopopoeia “is a personification of an inanimate object” (Ibid.). Synec-
doche is a “substitution of a part for a whole or the whole for a part” (Ibid.).
Their usefulness in interaction and communication design lies in the fact that they
can lead the user to a “preferred reading” of the UI. This characteristic means the
user can be directed to engage with the UI using a predefined set of interaction
sentences.
The rhetorical tropes can also be revealed by intrinsic relations among the signs
used, as is the case with “implied actions” (Apple, 2009). Implicit manipulation
builds upon connotations of the desktop metaphor. An example would be the implicit
relation between a document icon and the trash icon, or between a document icon
and a printer icon. The implicit action is triggered by relating two objects by drag and
drop. An object in a graphical UI is usually a document, folder, application, or trash
can.