Recent developments in vision science and their relationship to semiotics as seen through design practice

At its most fundamental level, semiotics helps us to understand how we assemble in our minds eye, a picture of what we imagine to be ‘the real world’. ‘Studying semiotics can assist us to become more aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by ourselves and others in constructing it’ (Chandler, 2006). In trying to understand that reality, semiotics draws on many fields, including principles of visual perception. Many respected authors have provided insights into the semiotics of perception from a combination of psychological, aesthetic or cultural viewpoints. However, some of that analysis presupposes that we are all physically seeing the same thing. This paper sets out facts about some aspects of what we really see – effectively a precursor to the interpretation of signs, codes and meanings arising from sight. Ultimately, the paper makes this analysis for the purpose of understanding how the meaning within design work can be better controlled, and we will refer to this as design semiotics.