-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Matthew Paul Thomas wrote: > On May 12, 2006, at 6:08 AM, Shane M. Coughlan wrote: >> ... >> Semiotics would suggest that the placement of the menu at the top of >> the screen is not fitting psychologically. The 'top' is generally >> understood to be ideological in Western cultures, with the left area >> being given to known information, the right to new information, and >> the bottom to data with less priority or the status of predictability >> (much the same as the left). > > Citations, please.
Kress, Gunther & Theo van Leeuwen (1998): 'Front Pages: (The Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout'. In Allan Bell & Peter Garrett (Eds.): Approaches to Media Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 186-219 Kress and van Leeuwen engage specifically with the analysis of newspaper front pages. They consider that the layout composition of a front page involves three signifying systems: Information Value, Salience and Framing. Information Value involves the concepts of Given and New, Real and Ideal, Centre and Margin. Given is positioned on the left and represents already known situations. New is on the right and gives us unknown information. Real is positioned at the bottom and it presents us with more specific information whereas Ideal is positioned at the top and gives us a more generalised picture of the event. Centre is either an important information element and is framed by a margin containing other elements, or is not clear but there is a conception of it. This work is based on Roland Barthes? visual semiotics. Barthes, Roland, "Le message photographique", in Communications, 1, 1961, pp. . Also in Barthes, Roland, L´obvie et l´obtus. Paris: Seuil 1982, pp. 9-24. Barthes, Roland, "Rhétorique de l´image", in Communications, 4, 1964, pp. 40-51. Also in Barthes, Roland, L´obvie et l´obtus. Paris: Seuil 1982, pp. 25-42 Of course Semiotics is much wider in scope than newspaper analysis. A very good place to start with regards Semiotic reading is http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html There an area of Semiotics that applies specifically to computing. Outline available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_semiotics >> ... >> - From the perspective of traditional semiotics it would make sense to >> have ideological data like application names and/or documentation >> names at the top, but to have predictable active objects on the left >> of the screen. The middle and right of the screen should contain new >> information like dynamic user data (desktop?). >> ... > > I double dog dare you to define "ideological data" with reference to > human-computer interfaces. OK :) As above "Ideal is positioned at the top and gives us a more generalised picture of the event." Ideological can be connected with general ideology of some sort - like a logo - or it can be understood to provide the framing context for our interaction with the information. When it comes to human-computer interfaces we might understand this to be the place where (a) identification logos can be placed, and (b) where general information pertaining to the current information event can occur. However, you are absolutely right with your underlying assertion that textual and visual Semiotic analysis does not automatically translate into multimedia analysis in the context of computing environments. I don't suggest that we can make such a link directly and uncritically. However, there is the possibility of learning much from pre-existing research regarding human perceptive methods and existing social encoding. Shane - -- Shane Martin Coughlan e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] m: +447773180107 w: www.shaneland.co.uk - --- Projects: http://mobility.opendawn.com http://gem.opendawn.com http://enigmail.mozdev.org http://www.winpt.org - --- Organisations: http://www.fsfeurope.org http://www.fsf.org http://www.labour.org.uk http://www.opensourceacademy.gov.uk - --- OpenPGP: http://www.shaneland.co.uk/personalpages/shane/files/publickey.asc -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.4-svn4127: (MingW32) iQCVAwUBRGReTNwG3M95JPpzAQi79wP6AyTiwY+0e06l1XCW76RtdwXGhyFkYe8q Smpf2JkmHe/++UbZ2B74Z2htluzhTBIaEommP5zngFUqUGpkydB3mYVZLKPZ46Ts 5bvFQpr5nj2Q2V2AJt8SJGxiwVYVL4Vk99mmjFF4vbc1979tXrfiv2bmEfI9w4bF Tj6TFaPMonk= =6nni -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
