The semiotic engineering of user interface languages

Semiotic approaches to design have recently shown that systems are messages sent from designers so users. In this paper we examine the nature of such messages and show that systems are messages that can send and receive other messages—they are metacommunication artefacts that should be engineered according to explicit semiotic principles. User interface languages are the primary expressive resource for such complex communication environments. Existing cognitively-based research has provided results which set the target interface designers should hit, but little is said about how to make successful decisions during the process of design itself. In an attempt to give theoretical support to the elaboration of user interface languages, we explore Eco's Theory of Sign Production (U. Eco, A Theory of Semiotics, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1976) and build a semiotic framework within which many design issues can be explained and predicted.