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.

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.

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

Can semiotics and computers be compatible? Can computation advance semiotics by enhancing the scientific basis of the theory of signs? Coupling semiotics, a philosophical and phenomenological tradition concerned with theories of signs, with computation, a formal discipline, may seem controversial and paradoxical. Computational Semiotics tackles these controversies head-on and attempts to bridge this gap. Showing how semiotics can build the same type of conceptual, formal, and computational models as other scientific projects, this book opens up a rich domain of inquiry toward the formal understanding of semiotic artifacts and processes. Examining how pairing semiotics with computation can bring more methodological rigor and logical consistency to the epistemic quest for the forms and functions of meaning, without compromising the important interpretive dynamics of semiotics, this book offers a new cutting-edge, model-driven theory to the field.

Many industrial training applications, educational applications, and of course information applications such as databases and hypermedia are all attempts to communicate, and yet we really don't know much about the computer as a communicative medium. Bringing together a collection of essays presenting such diverse theoretical approaches as general semiotics, linguistics, communication theory, literary and art criticism, sociology, and history, the editors set out to establish and elaborate the role of computer systems as a sign technology. The volume is divided into three main parts, each focused on a different field of semiotic inquiry. "Computer-Based Signs" discusses the special nature of signs produced by means of computers. "The Rhetoric of Interactive Media" deals with codes of aesthetics and composition for the new "elastic" medium of communication: interactive fiction and hypertext. "Computers in Context" analyzes computer technology in the larger cultural, historical, and organizational contexts. Scholars in computer science, cognitive science, organization theory, information and media science, semiotics, communication, and linguistics will find this book invaluable, and as current excitement about hypermedia and electronic books continues to grow, a broader audience including computer artists and literary critics will also find it a useful resource.

Organizational Semiotics: Evolving a Science of Information Systems covers such issues as: -Fundamental concepts such as 'information', 'data', 'message', 'communication', 'knowledge', 'organization', 'system' and so on; -Properties of signs vital to organizational functioning, such as their meanings, the intentions they express and the valuable social consequences they produce; -'Architecture' of organizations when they are viewed as information systems, based on their semiotics features; -Understanding language in organizational contexts, for example, the limitations on the language used to conduct business affairs; -The empirical study of communications for requirements elicitation; -Applying semiotic categories (e.g. physical, empiric, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, social) to various problems; -Organizational knowledge representation; -Business process re-engineering methods and the design of e-commerce systems.

Demonstrating the influence of Semiotic Engineering in Human-Computer Interaction, this book focuses on the work of one of the pioneers of the field - Clarisse de Souza - and her influence on this broad and wide-ranging area of research. It contains a selection of essays written by those that have worked with her over the years and will encourage readers to extend their reading and research in this area. Clarisse de Souza, widely known as the founder of Semiotic Engineering, will reach her 60th birthday in 2017, and the Semiotic Engineering Research Group that she founded will also celebrate its 20th anniversary. A key figure in HCI, Clarisse argued that human-computer interaction enables computer-mediated communication between the designer and the user at the point of interaction thus enabling and facilitating designers in understanding who their users are, and what their requirements may be. This book brings together prominent researchers who have helped to shape semiotic engineering by their insightful discussions on the theory.