Authors:
Vânia Paula de Almeida Neris
and
M. Cecília C. Baranauskas
Affiliation:
University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
Keyword(s):
Human-Computer Interaction, User interface design, Organizational Semiotics, Semantic Analysis, Norm Analysis.
Abstract:
Human interaction with Information and Communication Technologies relies on the manipulation of signs represented in different interface elements. While designing interfaces, several decisions may be taken as which interface elements will be added, where, which size, shape or color must have. More than context knowledge (as who is the user, devices’ characteristics and environmental conditions), information from the system domain should be used to support interface design. This paper presents preliminary results of an exploratory study about how affordances and norms may inform user interface design decisions. The results suggest that some categories of affordances are represented in the interface by similar types of signs and are placed in specific positions. Moreover, MONA, a tool to help designers to structure user interfaces and determine the behavior of each element using norms, is presented.