This research was supported/partially supported by:
Pragmatism within Design Practices:
Proposal of paradigm shift in design semiotics research KEYWORDS : Design research, Semiotics, Pragmatism, Methodology, Co-design. This ongoing thesis, developed in the scope of a broader investigation within design semiotics and design management, aims at building a method of analysis of the pragmatistic dimension of artifacts. The pragmatistic dimension relates to emerging senses and possible design consequences that emerge from the stakeholders’ rationale. The objective is to provide theoretical and technical support to the analytical stages of product development by introducing such a dimension into design practices. The focus lies on gaining insight into mediation processes and their unfoldments from the perspective of Peirce’s notion of sense and Eco’s understanding of functions. Mediation processes are subjective and embedded in the relationship established among customers, industrial goods and services providers [all them design-agents]. As such, “our idea of anything is our idea of its ‘sensible effects’” (Peirce, 5.401), i.e., the senses/functions of any industrial good or provided service are associated with all possible interpretative answers and practical consequences derived from the social and individual responses they produce or could produce. Consequently, “seeing functions from
Name / Surname
the semiotic point of view might permit one to understand and define them better […] and thereby to discover
Felipe Domingues
other types of functionality, which […] a straight functionalist interpretation keeps one from perceiving” (Eco, 1980, p. 12). Hence, they should be investigated in contexts of use and/or non-controlled environments as well as in behavior circumstances through the employment of specific research techniques.
Research field/area
Design Semiotics Research & Design Research Methodology
Hypothesis It is possible to shift the design semiotics paradigm by proposing full methodological research frameworks that bring to field research Peircean pragmatism as a foundation to better design products based on cultural codes, cultural interpretative and practical answers, and plausible consequences. Research question
Supervisor / Co-supervisor
How to access, identify, and analyze cultural codes, cultural interpretative answers and practical
Prof. Salvatore Zingale (Italy) Prof. Dijon De Moraes (Brazil)
consequences and plausible consequences thereof that emerge when artifacts are placed in specific cultural contexts and/or under specific circumstances? DESIGNER
Formal design process Senses/Values are attributed to artifact The formal design processes start here
1
USER
(Customer)
The formal design processes start here
ARTIFACT
STANDARD-USER
RESEARCHER / SEMIOTICIAN
Formal feeding design process New senses/values are researched, identified, discussed, and reported back to Formal design processes
DESIGNER
RESEARCHER
yr1
yr2
yr3
yr4
yr5
2
3
Informal design process Artifacts senses/values are inferred and new ones are attributed by users to the artifacts (Non-controlled environments)
(Professional)
(Semiotician)
RESEARCH OUTCOMES Feeding design practices
INDIVIDUAL (Customer [Design-agent])
CULTURE
INPUT SAMPLING PROCESS
Research demand and focus
DATA COLLECTION 1
DATA COLLECTION 2
Observations (Nonparticipant and participant) Photographic records
Observation (Nonparticipant) In-depth interviews
RESEARCH PLANNING PROCESS
Interpretant artifacts [innovation] STATE OF THE ART
Mediation artifact
A
Design Semiotics Design Management
Semiosic fluxes
...
How to access plausibility?
FIRST CONTACT Sample Approaching Process
DATA PROCESSING 1
DATA PROCESSING 2
Semiotic Analyses
Semiotic Analyses
Discursive Practices Content Analysis
Discursive Practices Content Analysis Software Pajek
Approach by convenience Snowball technique Cluster 1
Cluster 2
Plausible artifact [sense/value] suitable to design
Cluster 4
Centralities Cluster 3
2 1
Plausible consequence [sense/value] suitable to design
: Starting field research
: Phase 1
: Phase 2
Bibliography Eco, U. (1980). Function and sign: The semiotics of architecture. In Broadbent, G., Richard, B., & Charles, J. (Eds.), Signs, symbols and architecture (pp. 11-69). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Peirce, C. S. (1931-1958). Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Cambridge: Harvard University.