Computer Semiotics

This paper presents semiotics as a framework for unders tanding and designing computer systems as sign systems. Although semiotic methods can be applied to all levels of computer systems, they view computer systems under a particular perspective, namely as targets of interpretations. When we need to see c o m p u t e r systems as automata, semiotics has little to offer. The main focus of the paper is semiosis, the process of sign formation a n d interpretation. The paper discusses different semiotic paradigms, and advocates the European structuralist paradigm in combinat ion with the American Peircean tradition. Programming is described a s a process of sign-creation, and a semiotic approach to p r o gramming is compared to the object-oriented method. The importance of the work situation as a context of interpretation is emphasized