A Semiotic Approach for Analysing Icons in Graphical User Interface


Abstract: In this work the authors present a semiotic model for
analysing and classifying icons. This model is based upon three steps:


1) the icon is analysed in relation to itself;


2) the icon is analysed in relation to the object it represents;


3) the icon is analysed in relation to the human interpreter.


The first step is carried out through a perceptual, formal and gestalt
analysis. The second step, which refers to the object the icon
represents, is carried out through hermeneutic, semantical, functional


Keyword: Icon, semiotic approach, GUI


The graphical design of a user interface presents a very difficult
problem when designers utilise icons.They have to be put in
communicative environments and usually icons have precise meanings


problem when designers utilise icons.They have to be put in
communicative environments and usually icons have precise meanings
from a syntactical and semantical point of view on one hand. These


meanings deal with the real functions within multimedia page . On the
other hand icons have functions in the process of human computer
interaction. Like natural languages, graphic interfaces have visual


sentences which say things about the world; what a visual sentence
says about the world (its information domain) is a sum of the icons it
contains and the structures into which these are combined. The


Good interaction with an interface requires that users are able to
translate the common every day meaning of the icons into the
metaphorical and ergonomic meaning [1] which icons have in that


translate the common every day meaning of the icons into the
metaphorical and ergonomic meaning [1] which icons have in that
context . In this way users must learn conventional meanings of that


To-day many icon collections exist on the World Wide Web (For example,
a metaindex is available at


a metaindex is available at
http://www.webcom.com/~webcom/power/icons.html) that interface
designers use in their work. Too little attention is devoted to icon


http://www.webcom.com/~webcom/power/icons.html) that interface
designers use in their work. Too little attention is devoted to icon
classification which is useful to define standards in the computer


The second project "Tecfa" presents a formal analysis of the
interaction among icons within the same multimedia page and a semantic
analysis of the iconís formal characteristics (the on-line address is


interaction among icons within the same multimedia page and a semantic
analysis of the iconís formal characteristics (the on-line address is
the following http://tecfa.unige.ch/).


(http://www.pomona.claremont.edu/visual-lit/intro/intro.html) and the
CHI 95 tutorial on Icons by William Horton [6].


The present authors retain that none of these studies explains the
complex relationship between user and the icons in a graphical
interface.


In this work the authors present a semiotic model for analysing and
classifying icons [7] [5]. This model is based upon three steps:


1) the icon is analysed in relation to itself;


2) the icon is analysed in relation to the object it represents;


3) the icon is analysed in relation to the human interpreter.


line, direction, hue, texture, shape, scale, dimension and motion [3].
These structures let us to divide an icon into its components parts;
while gestalt analysis allows one to put these parts together again,


while gestalt analysis allows one to put these parts together again,
arriving at the re-construction of the whole icon, in a process that
is not derived from the sum of the single structures, but is a


The second step, which refers to the object the icon represents, is
carried out through hermeneutic, semantical, functional and


communicative analysis. Hermeneutic analysis considers the
interpretation of icons into the socio-cultural contexts in which they
can be found or utilised. This analysis "emphasises those areas of


understanding play a central role" [9]. Semantical analysis deals with
the relation of an icon (and of an object) to all the meanings it
carries, defining not only the ares the object refers to (a network of


conventional meanings, which can be utilised by a group of users in
that particular domain [1]. Like natural languages, icons give the
user the possibility to communicate with a large number of alternative


these alternatives (through a process of decision-making) and to
inter-act with the object/icon that represents the function a user
wants to activate. At this stage it is possible to list all the


functions the interface makes available and all the communicative
behaviours an icon provides the users with.


the interface and with a set of functions, meanings, behaviours that
an icon allows. Learning does not depend on the retention of an iconís


an icon allows. Learning does not depend on the retention of an iconís
formal structures, but on the user's ability to create links between


that satisfy his own aims. It is therefore necessary to establish: a)
the user's experience of the icon in that particular context; b) what
his emotional responses in relation to that icon are; c) what his aims


the user's experience of the icon in that particular context; b) what
his emotional responses in relation to that icon are; c) what his aims
are (pragmatics) and d) the user's psychological profile.


1) perceptual-formal-gestalt requirements that an icon must have from
a graphical-representative point of view;


2) a non-ambiguous representation and planning of the functions an
icon carries in its role within the interface. This helps clarify its
meaning and the communication context into which it is inserted;


3) how an icon can be understood from a cognitive and emotional point
of view in relation to the aims the users have in mind when they


a better human-computer interaction. At the present time we are
utilising this model to create a large data base of icons. We plan to
realise some interfaces with these icons and make test-beds to


utilising this model to create a large data base of icons. We plan to
realise some interfaces with these icons and make test-beds to
evaluate their usability.


6. Horton W. (1995). Designing Icons and Visual Symbols , in
Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing