Abstract
Communication designers encode messages into verbo-visual presentations to be decoded later by message receivers. This demands that designers choose what meanings to encode. Various tools enabling the exploration and understanding of meaning have been developed through the disciplines of psychology and semiotics, but generally have been used as meaning-analysis tools to analyse texts, and not primarily for meaning creation. Do tools exist to empower a designer to determine the meaning of a message they are tasked to create? Are these tools scalable, able to be used iteratively, and are they efficient? We explore various meaning-analysis tools and apply one of these tools to create meaning, within a real-world design project, within a limited timeframe, for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Keywords
design tools, meaning creation, semiotic square, communication design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.249
Citation
Craib, D., and Imbesi, L. (2016) Design methods for meaning discovery: a patient- oriented health research case study, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.249
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Design methods for meaning discovery: a patient- oriented health research case study
Communication designers encode messages into verbo-visual presentations to be decoded later by message receivers. This demands that designers choose what meanings to encode. Various tools enabling the exploration and understanding of meaning have been developed through the disciplines of psychology and semiotics, but generally have been used as meaning-analysis tools to analyse texts, and not primarily for meaning creation. Do tools exist to empower a designer to determine the meaning of a message they are tasked to create? Are these tools scalable, able to be used iteratively, and are they efficient? We explore various meaning-analysis tools and apply one of these tools to create meaning, within a real-world design project, within a limited timeframe, for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).