Structuralism and HCI

Structuralism

Wholeness by the sum

Individual

Individual

• Distinct genetic make up
• Socioeconomics
• Culture, personality, experience
• Choice,context, actions and actualization
• Brain and mind

Culture

The Sum of the Wholeness

• Group behaviors and attitude
• Each will have its own set of values, attitude and behavior routines
• Individuals behave alike, sameness

The Early days: HCI

Parson, 1951

• four sub-systems for the action system (behavioral organism, personal, social and cultural system).
• Interrelated in a ’cybernetic hierarchy‘ of control and conditioning

Parson, 1951

• Sport as an action system could be integrated by building its theory from the partial insights of fields like sport physiology, hiomechancis, sport psychology, sport sociology, sport philosophy or whatever other subdiscipline might provide information.

Semiotics and HCI

Semiotics and HCI

• Structuralism is an analytical method used by many semioticians.
• Disciplines involved in semiotics include linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, aesthetic and media theory, psychoanalysis and education.

Semiotics and Interface Design

• Making HCI more coherent.
• Exploiting insights from older media.
• Defining the characteristic properties of the computer medium
• Situating HCI-systems in a broader context.

Semiotics and Interface Design

• Making HCI more coherent.
• Semantics: the relationship of signs to what they stand for.
• Syntactics (or syntax): the formal or structural relations between signs
• Pragmatics: the relation of signs to interpreters

Logic of events

• Von Wright - comprised of motivations, norms, ability, situative change
• intentionality is the basis of the peculiar scientific logic of the social sciences and history
• Now we have -Situated cognition

Structuralism vs Phenomenology

• The way the light enters the eye when making the impression of the artifact might be the same for most individuals (Structural lens), but the way it is interpreted (Phenomenology lens) in the brains of individuals differ

Structuralism, existentialism and other lisms

Existentialism - Philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that humans define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe.

Why nothing and structure are friends

• Past experiences affect responses to new world
• Upbringing,education, social, economics, physical conditions
• Existentialist create their own structure but not bound by it
• Transcend structure

Latter days: UseR experience

Latter days: UseR experience

• Inherited a descriptive narrative rather procedural
• Adaptive multi contextual user model that can adapt to mental mode
• Designing meaningful experiences

References

• Structuralism,Existentialism, and Environment Perception by Yi-Fu Tuan
• Critical Dialogue: Interaction, Experience and Cultural Theory by
• Structural Models for Interactive Drama by Nicolas Szilas
• Understanding experiences in photography exhibitions for Interaction Designers by Kshitiz Anand

References

• What semiotics can and cannot do for HCI by Peter Bøgh Andersen
• Evaluation of Conceptual Models - A Structuralist Approach by Daniel Pfeiffer
• Narrativity in User Action: Emotion and Temporal Configurations of Narrative by Shachindra Nath
• On Theory of Science for the Sociology of Sport by Gunther Luschen
• Structural Models for Interactive Drama by Nicolas Szilas
• A grammar-based approach for populating HCI design spaces by Margherita Antona