Comments on: UX Australia – Day Two and wrap up http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/08/ux-australia-day-two-and-wrap-up/ Interaction experience design blog - web, social, gov 2.0 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:53:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: NathanaelB http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/08/ux-australia-day-two-and-wrap-up/comment-page-1/#comment-67 NathanaelB Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:44:02 +0000 http://www.purecaffeine.com/?p=52#comment-67 Thanks Stephen, that's what I was looking for - although I think I'd get value out of observing someone else going through a semiotic analysis more relevant to the work I do. Thanks Stephen, that’s what I was looking for – although I think I’d get value out of observing someone else going through a semiotic analysis more relevant to the work I do.

]]> By: Stephen Cox http://www.purecaffeine.com/2009/08/ux-australia-day-two-and-wrap-up/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Stephen Cox Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:04:40 +0000 http://www.purecaffeine.com/?p=52#comment-19 Hi Nathanael, Thanks for the mention in your blogpost. In response to: "He lost me a bit on the metaphor thing but if he was explaining what I think he was then it was interesting … not just using metaphors in an end product but as a communication tool and a new way of approaching analysis of problems that align with that metaphor." Semiotics is a pretty old school way of looking at the world (people have moved onto post structuralist thinking at unis), but I think it still holds a lot of value, if not for its validity but for the way it makes you think and consider context and connections. Metaphor, is another way of "signifying" things as well, but as usual I digress... The example I was showing during the presentation was to illustrate how reading "signs" and "sign systems" can help when you are doing research. The example basically boiled down to trying to understand why in a lot of "empty nesters" households (in particular those who want to move to a gated community) there is a cabinet full of objects from overseas. My analysis suggested that the cabinet was an unconscious "metaphor" for how the owners wanted to see the world outside their homes. That is the international objects were locked safely behind the glass to be admired from afar and not interacted with. This contrasted with what was actually happening in their suburbs, where there was extensive immigration and a change in the culture. I.e. the “international” was out of the box and they were being forced to interact with it, this suggested some reasons as to why they were looking to move to gated community, which they assumed would be more like the suburbs they remembered growing up. Basically, by doing the analysis on an object found in the context of the interview (the cabinet) I was able to think of more appropriate questions to ask the people involved in the study. It’s sort of fun to try semiotic analysis on all sorts of stuff, try your desk at work. See what signs you are portraying to the world through the use of signs… I’m looking at my desk thinking, the mess probably represents me be appearing to be busy… while the random packets of herbal tea and nuts is something to do with me pretending to be healthy. Anyway, always happy to try and clarify further if I have missed the point of your question. Cheers, Stephen Cox @s_cox Hi Nathanael,
Thanks for the mention in your blogpost.

In response to:
“He lost me a bit on the metaphor thing but if he was explaining what I think he was then it was interesting … not just using metaphors in an end product but as a communication tool and a new way of approaching analysis of problems that align with that metaphor.”

Semiotics is a pretty old school way of looking at the world (people have moved onto post structuralist thinking at unis), but I think it still holds a lot of value, if not for its validity but for the way it makes you think and consider context and connections.

Metaphor, is another way of “signifying” things as well, but as usual I digress…

The example I was showing during the presentation was to illustrate how reading “signs” and “sign systems” can help when you are doing research. The example basically boiled down to trying to understand why in a lot of “empty nesters” households (in particular those who want to move to a gated community) there is a cabinet full of objects from overseas. My analysis suggested that the cabinet was an unconscious “metaphor” for how the owners wanted to see the world outside their homes. That is the international objects were locked safely behind the glass to be admired from afar and not interacted with. This contrasted with what was actually happening in their suburbs, where there was extensive immigration and a change in the culture. I.e. the “international” was out of the box and they were being forced to interact with it, this suggested some reasons as to why they were looking to move to gated community, which they assumed would be more like the suburbs they remembered growing up.

Basically, by doing the analysis on an object found in the context of the interview (the cabinet) I was able to think of more appropriate questions to ask the people involved in the study.

It’s sort of fun to try semiotic analysis on all sorts of stuff, try your desk at work. See what signs you are portraying to the world through the use of signs… I’m looking at my desk thinking, the mess probably represents me be appearing to be busy… while the random packets of herbal tea and nuts is something to do with me pretending to be healthy.

Anyway, always happy to try and clarify further if I have missed the point of your question.

Cheers,
Stephen Cox
@s_cox

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