A Theory of Computer Semiotics

A Theory of Computer Semiotics PDF Author: Peter Bøgh Andersen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521448680
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
Semiotics is the science of signs: graphical, such as pictures; verbal (writing or sounds); or others such as body gestures and clothes. Computer semiotics studies the special nature of computer-based signs and how they function in use. This 1991 book is based on ten years of empirical research on computer usage in work situations and contains material from a course taught by the author. It introduces basic traditional semiotic concepts and adapts them so that they become useful for analysing and designing computer systems in their symbolic context of work. It presents a novel approach to the subject, rich in examples, in that it is both theoretically systematic and practical. The author refers to and reinterprets techniques already used so that readers can deepen their understanding. In addition, it offers new techniques and a consistent perspective on computer systems that is particularly appropriate for new hardware and software (e.g. hypermedia) whose main functions are presentation and communication. This is a highly important work whose influence will be wide and longlasting.

The Semiotic Engineering of Human-computer Interaction

The Semiotic Engineering of Human-computer Interaction PDF Author: Clarisse Sieckenius De Souza
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262042208
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Book Description
A theory of HCI that uses concepts from semiotics and computer science to focus on the communication between designers and users during interaction. In The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction, Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza proposes an account of HCI that draws on concepts from semiotics and computer science to investigate the relationship between user and designer. Semiotics is the study of signs, and the essence of semiotic engineering is the communication between designers and users at interaction time; designers must somehow be present in the interface to tell users how to use the signs that make up a system or program. This approach, which builds on--but goes further than--the currently dominant user-centered approach, allows designers to communicate their overall vision and therefore helps users understand designs--rather than simply which icon to click. According to de Souza's account, both designers and users are interlocutors in an overall communication process that takes place through an interface of words, graphics, and behavior. Designers must tell users what they mean by the artifact they have created, and users must understand and respond to what they are being told. By coupling semiotic theory and engineering, de Souza's approach to HCI design encompasses the principles, the materials, the processes, and the possibilities for producing meaningful interactive computer system discourse and achieves a broader perspective than cognitive, ethnographic, or ergonomic approaches. De Souza begins with a theoretical overview and detailed exposition of the semiotic engineering account of HCI. She then shows how this approach can be applied specifically to HCI evaluation and design of online help systems, customization and end-user programming, and multiuser applications. Finally, she reflects on the potential and opportunities for research in semiotic engineering.

Semiotics of Programming

Semiotics of Programming PDF Author: Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521516552
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
Considers what computers can and cannot do, analysing how computer sign systems compare to humans through a concept of reflexivity.

The Wiley Handbook of Human Computer Interaction Set

The Wiley Handbook of Human Computer Interaction Set PDF Author: Kent Norman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118977270
Category : Psychology
Languages : de
Pages : 2263

Book Description
In der Vergangenheit war die Mensch-Computer-Interaktion (Human-Computer Interaction) das Privileg einiger weniger. Heute ist Computertechnologie weit verbreitet, allgegenwärtig und global. Arbeiten und Lernen erfolgen über den Computer. Private und kommerzielle Systeme arbeiten computergestützt. Das Gesundheitswesen wird neu erfunden. Navigation erfolgt interaktiv. Unterhaltung kommt aus dem Computer. Als Antwort auf immer leistungsfähigere Systeme sind im Bereich der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion immer ausgeklügeltere Theorien und Methodiken entstanden. The Wiley Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction bietet einen Überblick über all diese Entwicklungen und untersucht die vielen verschiedenen Aspekte der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion und hat den Wert menschlicher Erfahrungen, die über Technologie stehen, ganzheitlich im Blick.

Semiotics in Information Systems Engineering

Semiotics in Information Systems Engineering PDF Author: Kecheng Liu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139425536
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
Semiotics, the science of signs, has long been recognised as an important discipline for understanding information and communications. Moreover it has found wide application in other areas of computer science, as it offers an effective insight into organisations and the computer systems that support them. An organisation may be viewed as a system of information and communication in which human actors, with the assistance of information technology, are able to process, represent, store and consume information. Computer systems that fit into an organisation and that support and enhance its performance and competitiveness, can be better delivered if semiotic principles are understood and applied. In this book, first published in 2000, semiotic methods are introduced and illustrated through three major case studies, which demonstrate how information systems can be developed to meet business requirements and support business objectives. It will appeal to academics, systems developers and analysts.

Critical Semiotics

Critical Semiotics PDF Author: Gary Genosko
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472596382
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Book Description
Critical Semiotics provides long overdue answers to questions at the junction of information, meaning and 'affect'. The affective turn in cultural studies has received much attention: a focus on the pre-individual bodily forces, linked to automatic responses, which augment or diminish the body's capacity to act or engage with others. In a world dominated by information, how do things that seem to have diminished meaning or even no meaning still have so much power to affect us, or to carry on our ability to affect the world? Linguistics and semiotics have been accused of being adrift from the affective turn and not accounting for these visceral forces beneath or generally other from conscious knowing. In this book, Gary Genosko delivers a detailed refutation, with analyses of specific contributions to critical semiotic approaches to meaning and signification. People want to understand how other people are moved and to understand embodied social actions, feelings and passions at the same time as understanding how this takes place. Semiotics must make the affective turn.

FireSigns

FireSigns PDF Author: Steven Skaggs
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026203543X
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 295

Book Description
Semiotics concepts from a design perspective, offering the foundation for a coherent theory of graphic design as well as conceptual tools for practicing designers. Graphic design has been an academic discipline since the post-World War II era, but it has yet to develop a coherent theoretical foundation. Instead, it proceeds through styles, genres, and imitation, drawing on sources that range from the Bauhaus to deconstructionism. In FireSigns, Steven Skaggs offers the foundation for a semiotic theory of graphic design, exploring semiotic concepts from design and studio art perspectives and offering useful conceptual tools for practicing designers. Semiotics is the study of signs and significations; graphic design creates visual signs meant to create a certain effect in the mind (a “FireSign”). Skaggs provides a network of explicit concepts and terminology for a practice that has made implicit use of semiotics without knowing it. He offers an overview of the metaphysics of visual perception and the notion of visual entities, and, drawing on the pragmatic semiotics of the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, looks at visual experience as a product of the action of signs. He introduces three conceptual tools for analyzing works of graphic design—semantic profiles, the functional matrix, and the visual gamut—that allow visual “personality types” to emerge and enable a greater understanding of the range of possibilities for visual elements. Finally, he applies these tools to specific analyses of typography.

Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language

Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language PDF Author: Umberto Eco
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253203984
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
"Eco wittily and enchantingly develops themes often touched on in his previous works, but he delves deeper into their complex nature . . . this collection can be read with pleasure by those unversed in semiotic theory." —Times Literary Supplement

Interactive Media: The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction

Interactive Media: The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction PDF Author: Shaleph O'Neill
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1848000367
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Book Description
The author discusses the existing theoretical approaches of semiotically informed research in HCI, what is useful and the limitations. He proposes a radical rethink to this approach through a re-evaluation of important semiotic concepts and applied semiotic methods. Using a semiotic model of interaction he explores this concept through several studies that help to develop his argument. He concludes that this semiotics of interaction is more appropriate than other versions because it focuses on the characteristics of interactive media as they are experienced and the way in which users make sense of them rather than thinking about interface design or usability issues.

Signs in Use

Signs in Use PDF Author: Jørgen Dines Johansen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134505787
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
Signs in Use is an accessible introduction to the study of semiotics. All organisms, from bees to computer networks, create signs, communicate, and exchange information. The field of semiotics explores the ways in which we use these signs to make inferences about the nature of the world. Signs in Use cuts across different semiotic schools to introduce six basic concepts which present semiotics as a theory and a set of analytical tools: code, sign, discourse, action, text, and culture. Moving from the most simple to the most complex concept, the book gradually widens the semiotic perspective to show how and why semiotics works as it does. Each chapter covers a problem encountered in semiotics and explores the key concepts and relevant notions found in the various theories of semiotics. Chapters build gradually on knowledge gained, and can also be used as self-contained units for study when supported by the extensive glossary. The book is illustrated with numerous examples, from traffic systems to urban parks, and offers useful biographies of key twentieth-century semioticians.