The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction Section I Foundation Chapter 1 Introduction

Conversation between two people interacting with a computer “How do I send picture by email?” “Click on Attach button, or paper clip icon, select the picture and click attach” The instructions above are clear and well understood by people that use computer everyday.

Decompose the dialogue into tokens using this interface: A Token is an specific element in the dialogue.

The user has to navigate with mouse to the button with word “Attach” But the actual dialog that is happening between user and computer is more complex: The user has to navigate with mouse to the button with word “Attach” Left clicking on mouse when the arrow on the computer screen is over the correct button. A new dialog window will appear. The user then has to navigate to the correct folder where the picture in the form of file is stored, by opening (click or double click with mouse) one folder at the time. To select a picture the user has to click on the picture file and the file will be highlighted in dark blue. Then the user has to click on “Open” button and it should attach the file to the email.

User Centered Design vs Semiotic Design

Section 1.1 Semiotic Theories of Human Computer Interaction Semiotic Study of: Signs Signification processes, and How signs and signification take part in communication HCI artifacts are intellectual constructs -result of choices and decisions rather than predictable natural laws. Semiotic central themes of investigation: meaning assignment, meaning codification, and the forms, ways, and effects of meaning in communication – date to Greek classics

Semiotic in HCI Graphical user interfaces Visual languages Sign System Produced and perpetuated by cultures Thus.. A theory of culture

Semiotic Engineering Bring together semiotic and HCI in a concise and consistent way to: Support new knowledge organization and discovery Establishment of useful research methods for analysis and synthesis Derivation of tools for training and practice

Semiotics involves Signification and meaning-related processes between:

Engineering Support HCI artifacts Design Construction of artifacts HCI artifacts result of choices and decisions guided by reasoning, sense making, and technical skills

HCI artifacts are communicated as signs We must be able to Interpret, Learn, Use, and Adapt to various contexts. Goal produce meaningful interactive computer system discourse

Epistemological The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity In HCI How knowledge is gained, analyzed, tested, and used or rejected

Signs Concrete objective stance Encoded in signification systems Psychological, social, and cultural contexts. Encoded in signification systems To communicate attitudes, intents, and contents Clients Owners Users Attitude Intent content HCI artifact Developers Designers Technical Support

SmartFTP Interface signs Resulting signs Meaning Resulting signs From interaction Incorporates a complex signification system

1.2 The Semiotic Engineering Framework Designers must tell users what they mean by the artifact they have created, And users are expected to understand and respond to what they are being told…. Via the artifact’s interface Words, Graphics, Behavior, Online help, And explanations. Interlocutors in the communication process

Reflective Theory Reflective theory explicitly brings designers to HCI processes & assigns then an ontological position Ontology -a rigorous and exhaustive organization of some knowledge domain that is usually hierarchical and contains all the relevant entities and their relations

User-Centered design compared to semiotic engineering

1.3 Theorizing about Software as an Intellectual Artifact What is an intellectual artifact? Artifact nonnatural objects created Concrete = forks, knife (material artifacts) Abstract = safety measures (procedural artifacts preventing accidents) Physical purpose = chairs Mental purpose = truth tables Intellectual Artifacts are: It encodes a particular understanding or interpretation of a problem situation. It also encodes a particular set of solutions for the perceived problem situation. The encoding of both the problem situation and the corresponding solutions is fundamentally linguistic (based on a system)

Intellectual Artifacts (cont…) Of symbols-verbal, visual, aural or other- that can be interpreted by consistent semantic rules); and The artifact’s ultimate purpose can only be completely achieved by its users if they can formulate it within the linguistic system in which the artifacts is encoded. Producer----> Intellectual artifacts----> Consumer Same Language (genuine system of symbols)

What is a Language? System of Symbols Definition of Vocabulary Grammar Set of semantic rules. We will have an entire lecture on this in the next lecture.

Grade Proposal Points for SWE 4783 User Interaction Engineering     test a,b,final (drop one) - 200 each                400 total     signs project (125) and presentation (50)      175 total     usability evaluation(75) presentation (25)     100 total     attendance (125) WEBS (50)                         175 total                                                                    850 overall points Proposal: 225 points each for the test  3 test          675 150 points for the signs project          150 100 points for the Usability evaluation         100 200 points for attendance and 150 webs 200   Total 1275 pts