Chapter 12 The Semiotics of Usage-Centred Design
Jennifer Ferreira, James Noble, Robert Biddle · 2007
User interface design is a complex activity, which makes it difficult to control and master. A well-designed user interface can be seen as one where designers have correctly mapped the application domain onto the solution domain. This mapping, or bridge, may be helped or hindered by the design methodology and the success of any software engineering methodology depending on how good a bridge it provides between the application domain and the solution domain. A good match between the requirements and the implementation reduces the risk of having to make costly and major changes to the user interface at a late stage in development. Usage-centred design (UsCD) has been a very successful user interface design methodology. Although successful, there is no underlying theory as to why this should be the case. This chapter uses semiotics to provide a better understanding of the models and the process of UsCD.