Information Technology Reference
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interest: universal access to distributed information, lifelong learning, e-commerce, information
visualization, and computer-mediated communications.
Clearly the literature on HCI touches upon a broad spectrum of issues. Yet, management of
information system security has not been considered as a topic area of interest to HCI researchers.
However, when examining the major issues related to HCI and e-commerce, Nah and Davis
(2002) do suggest that Web usability, interface design, and especially trust as key areas for future
research. However, the research area of trust, defined as the willingness of a user to take risks, is not
necessarily synonymous with the research area of security. In a survey conducted by Abrazhevich
(2001), it was found that the major issues that concerned users of e-commerce sites were applica-
bility, traceability, trust, security, convertibility, ease of use, and reliability; trust and security were
found to be the most important areas of concern. As a result of this survey, there should be no
doubt that interpreting security in the context of HCI is an important area of interest.
Obviously, much research has been conducted in the area of security for various implementa-
tions of information systems. This research has covered traditional topics such as authentication
(passwords, biometrics), security operations (intrusion detection, vigilance, policies and practices),
and development of secure systems (developing for security, understanding users, installation and
operation support). These traditional topics are, no doubt, important in the context of HCI secu-
rity. This paper, however, proposes a more complete analysis that deals with deep-rooted issues.
A more complete analysis is required to uncover issues that deal more specifically with the human
components of HCI security and how these human-level issues interact with technical issues.
As a result, this paper proposes a method, using a semiotics approach, for discovering and
interpreting the deep-rooted issues that deal with security in the context of HCI. This paper is
organized into three major sections. Section 2 discusses semiotic concepts along with research
that applies the semiotic paradigm to other IS related issues. Section 3 then discusses actual security
issues pertaining to HCI that require a more extensive and detailed analysis. Section 4 presents a
method for conducting this extensive analysis using a semiotic framework. Finally, conclusions
are drawn in Section 5.
MIS AND SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
Semiotics is the study of signs where a sign is defined as anything that has meaning to somebody in
some respect or capacity (Stamper, 1973). More specifically, semiotics is the discipline that helps in
studying information, information flow (communication), and culture. This enables accurate interpre-
tation of meanings through acts of signification (Barley, 1983; Manning, 1992; Falkenberg et al., 1998).
The semiotic ladder, an analytical tool developed in the field of semiotics, represents the study
of signs at six different layers of abstraction (Stamper, 1973; Liebenau and Backhouse, 1990). The
ladder (Table 13.1) consists of physical, empiric, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and social layers.
The six layers can further be classified into two levels—technical and human issues—pertaining to
information flows.
Braf (2001) suggests that the purpose of the semiotic ladder is to provide a framework for
understanding the many different usages of information, from technical to human considerations.
Clearly, HCI consists of both technical and human factors. Therefore it can be argued that devel-
oping an understanding at various levels of the semiotic ladder would serve to uncover the
surface-level and deep-rooted issues that would be of interest to HCI system designers.
Additionally, semiotic analysis could then serve as a starting point for uncovering the technical
and human issues of security in the context of HCI.
As with any framework, much confusion is often found when one attempts to completely dis-
tinguish between the individual layers. Many issues could be interpreted at more than one layer,
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