Semiotic perception of signs in web interfaces on mobile devices

Abstract

Signs and icons are a part of user interfaces (UIs) that are both designed for and mediated between humans and mobile devices in order for users to achieve tasks. Users act on signs as a result of their comprehension of a sign’s content. Meaningful signs improve users’ comprehension. The study of signs and its meaning- semiotics – has been used in HCI to improve the usability of systems. Signs appear in many different contexts, and their interpretation varies between contexts. One increasingly prevalent context is mobile devices, but there is scant knowledge of how the interpretation of signs is affected by small displays and other mobile limitations. We propose a study for determining the influence of mobile devices on the interpretations of icons and signs by users. This study focuses on the impact of interaction sequences on the accuracy of user interpretations of signs, as series of displays are often used instead of large one-screen interfaces in mobile interfaces.