INTERPRETING SECURITY IN HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTIONS - Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems: Foundations - page 265

Table 13.1

Semiotic Ladder

Technical Level

Physics Layer (Physical World) Signals, traces, physical distinctions, hardware

Empiric Layer Noise, entropy, pattern, variety, noise variety, redundancy,

codes, efficiency

Syntactic Layer Formal structure, logic, data, records, files, computer language

Human Level

Semantic Layer Meanings, propositions, validity, truth, signification, denotation

Pragmatic Layer Communications, conversations, negotiations, intentions

Social Layer (Social World) Cultural norms, beliefs, expectations, functions, commitments,

law, culture, contracts, values, shared models of reality, attitudes

Source: Based on Liebenau and Backhouse (1990).

indicating that distinct boundaries between the layers of the semiotic ladder do not always appear
for every design issue, especially when one is dealing with the ladder's human layers (Kitiyadisai,
1991). Obviously, this confusion is merited because human layers are typically qualitative in nature
and do not expose distinct boundaries like those produced by the quantitative technical layers.
However, one must attempt to find some place in the semiotic ladder for all the concepts and issues
that go into designing a system if one is planning to undertake a semiotic analysis. The rest of this
section will address the distinctions between the layers of the semiotic ladder and will conclude
with identifying research that applies the semiotic paradigm to other IS-related issues.

Technical Level

The technical platform of any information system includes hardware, telecommunications, and
software (Falkenberg et al., 1998). When dealing with these three components of any IS technical
platform, Falkenberg et al. state that generally hardware maps to the physical layer, telecommu-
nications maps to the empiric layer, and software maps to the syntactic layer of the semiotic ladder.
These three layers require research mainly from the mathematics and natural science perspective,
and each individual layer of the technical level is well defined in the literature (Morris, 1964).
In short, the physical layer of the semiotic ladder is mainly concerned with modeling the prop-
erties of information as input to and output from any physical component of an information sys-
tem. At the physical layer, the term “information” is generally defined as a collection of tokens
that have both dynamic and static properties. A dynamic token is referred to as a signal and a
static token is referred to as a mark. The physical layer is thus concerned with modeling these
tokens in terms of their sources, destinations, and routes over which they are transmitted.
In contrast to the physical level, the empiric layer views information in terms of its availability
and usability. The empiric layer is mainly concerned with the properties dealing with the trans-
mission of tokens across channels of communication. Clearly the engineering principles of noise,
entropy, pattern, variety, noise variety, redundancy, codes, and efficiency would all be addressed
at the empiric layer (refer to Table 13.1).