A cognitive linguistic perspective on the user interface

Inger Lytje, Aalborg University, Denmark

Most user interfaces cannot be read in a systematic way, according to some kind of notational system or sign system. Consequently, users experience software very instrumentally, and therefore they will not be able to reason and learn about the system in a coherent manner. The reason is that user interfaces are designed in a rather pragmatic way, and not as a coherent presentation of the data and knowledge with which the user interacts. Designers also suffer from lack of systematicity and lack of methodology when designing the system. Usability tests and pragmatic guidelines do not seem to be an answer to the problem.

In order to cope with the problem, I will suggest that the user interface is conceptualized in terms of cognitive linguistic categories, that means in terms of semantic structure, metaphor and cognitive framing. I consider three kinds of basic semantic structure: event structure, thing and relation. Event structures are expressed in natural language using the linguistic category verb, verb phrase and sentence. Nouns and noun phrases refer to things. Relational expressions are adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases. With 'cognitive framing' I refer to Fillmore, Talmy, Schank and Langacker and their conceptions of contextual background in terms of frames, scripts and cognitive domains. And with 'metaphor' I refer to the notion of metaphor developed by Lakoff and others.

The question now is how the conceptualization through cognitive linguistic categories should be represented in the user interface. In order to answer this question, I have analyzed an existing design language, Visual Basic, in order to identify some basic categories of computer based signs by means of which the cognitive linguistic categories can be represented.