A Semiotic Approach for Analysing Icons in Graphical User Interface

   Abstract: In this work the authors present a semiotic model for
   analysing and classifying icons. This model is based upon three steps:

   1) the icon is analysed in relation to itself;

   2) the icon is analysed in relation to the object it represents;

   3) the icon is analysed in relation to the human interpreter.

   The first step is carried out through a perceptual, formal and gestalt
   analysis. The second step, which refers to the object the icon
   represents, is carried out through hermeneutic, semantical, functional


   Keyword: Icon, semiotic approach, GUI

   The graphical design of a user interface presents a very difficult
   problem when designers utilise icons.They have to be put in
   communicative environments and usually icons have precise meanings


   problem when designers utilise icons.They have to be put in
   communicative environments and usually icons have precise meanings
   from a syntactical and semantical point of view on one hand. These


   meanings deal with the real functions within multimedia page . On the
   other hand icons have functions in the process of human computer
   interaction. Like natural languages, graphic interfaces have visual


   sentences which say things about the world; what a visual sentence
   says about the world (its information domain) is a sum of the icons it
   contains and the structures into which these are combined. The


   Good interaction with an interface requires that users are able to
   translate the common every day meaning of the icons into the
   metaphorical and ergonomic meaning [1] which icons have in that


   translate the common every day meaning of the icons into the
   metaphorical and ergonomic meaning [1] which icons have in that
   context . In this way users must learn conventional meanings of that


   To-day many icon collections exist on the World Wide Web (For example,
   a metaindex is available at


   a metaindex is available at
   http://www.webcom.com/~webcom/power/icons.html) that interface
   designers use in their work. Too little attention is devoted to icon


   http://www.webcom.com/~webcom/power/icons.html) that interface
   designers use in their work. Too little attention is devoted to icon
   classification which is useful to define standards in the computer


   The second project "Tecfa" presents a formal analysis of the
   interaction among icons within the same multimedia page and a semantic
   analysis of the iconís formal characteristics (the on-line address is


   interaction among icons within the same multimedia page and a semantic
   analysis of the iconís formal characteristics (the on-line address is
   the following http://tecfa.unige.ch/).


   (http://www.pomona.claremont.edu/visual-lit/intro/intro.html) and the
   CHI 95 tutorial on Icons by William Horton [6].

   The present authors retain that none of these studies explains the
   complex relationship between user and the icons in a graphical
   interface.


   In this work the authors present a semiotic model for analysing and
   classifying icons [7] [5]. This model is based upon three steps:

   1) the icon is analysed in relation to itself;

   2) the icon is analysed in relation to the object it represents;

   3) the icon is analysed in relation to the human interpreter.

   line, direction, hue, texture, shape, scale, dimension and motion [3].
   These structures let us to divide an icon into its components parts;
   while gestalt analysis allows one to put these parts together again,


   while gestalt analysis allows one to put these parts together again,
   arriving at the re-construction of the whole icon, in a process that
   is not derived from the sum of the single structures, but is a


   The second step, which refers to the object the icon represents, is
   carried out through hermeneutic, semantical, functional and


   communicative analysis. Hermeneutic analysis considers the
   interpretation of icons into the socio-cultural contexts in which they
   can be found or utilised. This analysis "emphasises those areas of


   understanding play a central role" [9]. Semantical analysis deals with
   the relation of an icon (and of an object) to all the meanings it
   carries, defining not only the ares the object refers to (a network of


   conventional meanings, which can be utilised by a group of users in
   that particular domain [1]. Like natural languages, icons give the
   user the possibility to communicate with a large number of alternative


   these alternatives (through a process of decision-making) and to
   inter-act with the object/icon that represents the function a user
   wants to activate. At this stage it is possible to list all the


   functions the interface makes available and all the communicative
   behaviours an icon provides the users with.

   the interface and with a set of functions, meanings, behaviours that
   an icon allows. Learning does not depend on the retention of an iconís

   an icon allows. Learning does not depend on the retention of an iconís
   formal structures, but on the user's ability to create links between


   that satisfy his own aims. It is therefore necessary to establish: a)
   the user's experience of the icon in that particular context; b) what
   his emotional responses in relation to that icon are; c) what his aims


   the user's experience of the icon in that particular context; b) what
   his emotional responses in relation to that icon are; c) what his aims
   are (pragmatics) and d) the user's psychological profile.


   1) perceptual-formal-gestalt requirements that an icon must have from
   a graphical-representative point of view;


   2) a non-ambiguous representation and planning of the functions an
   icon carries in its role within the interface. This helps clarify its
   meaning and the communication context into which it is inserted;


   3) how an icon can be understood from a cognitive and emotional point
   of view in relation to the aims the users have in mind when they


   a better human-computer interaction. At the present time we are
   utilising this model to create a large data base of icons. We plan to
   realise some interfaces with these icons and make test-beds to


   utilising this model to create a large data base of icons. We plan to
   realise some interfaces with these icons and make test-beds to
   evaluate their usability.


   6. Horton W. (1995). Designing Icons and Visual Symbols , in
   Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing