Semiotics

In order to navigate the small digital devices it is commonly understood that users will be using symbols. For example to go back a page there will be an arrow pointing left and to look at your address book there will be a symbol of an address book. This idea interested me and I researched into the workings of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1913) and their study into semiotics.

I was interested in why we simply recognise these navigation symbols and what they will do when we press them. This is not only the case on the digital devices as semiotics are used all around us. An example can be seen with figure 3 in the image below. We use three different techniques in order to recognise symbols and they are as follows. Icon – this resembles physically the object that is being presented such as images 3.1 and 3.2 where a shopping center is represented using an iconic sign. Index – a direct link the sign and the object. Traffic signs are index signs as they have a direct link to the location in which they are placed. An example of this is image 3.3 where the danger of fire is linked to the forest by its physical location. Symbol signs have no logical connection between the sign and what it means. Symbol signs are used on small digital devices as the user is expected to know in advance what they mean. This is also the same with image 3.4 and 3.5. This

These functions can work together for example figure 1 in the image below warns us that we are approaching traffic lights. The mark on the sign, which resembles the lights, is both an icon and a symbol. It looks physically like the thing it is represents therefore it could be said to be iconic. However it is also a symbol. That is to say it is part of a set of signs for which we have international agreement for its meaning.

I believe the reason we use these symbols is because in the case of the small digital devices they have small screens so therefore it may be difficult for people to read lots of text. We use symbols that represent their meaning and this is commonly recognised by all people, speaking all languages and coming from a variety of cultures. I also discovered that symbols are often used on larger digital devices as well. I therefore started to consider the reasoning for this and I believe that it is for the same reasons as the small devices. Companies are distributing all over the world so therefore rather than having to create different platforms for different languages then symbols can be used as they are internationally recognised. An example of international recognition of a symbol is figure 2 in the image below.