Week 7: Reading Chapter 5

Phenomenologists describe meaning as implicit in the way in which we interact with each other and the world around us. This chapter goes into more depth on the concept of 'meaning' and tries to connect it to the design of software- and interactive systems. Until this point we have encountered a number of different aspects of the concept 'meaning'.

Ontology is a specialism that concentrates on the different objects and entities in our world and in what way they relate to each other. Ontology offers a way of defining the structure in our lives and extracts the meaning by the way we interact with it. Software engineers use the term ontology as a way to describe the structure of their program in a way that relates to and tries to understand the world of the user. It should be noted that it is not a good idea to presume a single ontology in the design though. This will cause the system to be specialized towards a single kind of user, whereas the ontology of one user to the next will differ.

Intersubjectivity is engaged in finding out in which way users share meaning, even though they can't take a quick look into each other’s minds. It takes a role in the design of software systems as that the designer will have to convey to the user what the goal of the system is and how it should be used.

Intentionality is the connection we make between a thought or memory, and the actual object it concerns (and vice versa). Every element in a software system is an abstraction of reality. It's not surprising then that, because of the real-life entities these elements represent, we have to consider the way in which we interact with these objects in the world when designing the system.

This is where the term coupling comes in. Coupling is the concept that every intentional action has a direct consequence, or chain reaction of consequences. We use coupling to describe, build up and break down these action-reaction relationships. We can see a software system as a model with different layers of abstraction; from the input-output layer to the user interface. In terms of user interactivity we could look at coupling as the assigning of the interests of the user at a certain moment to one of these layers, but this wouldn't be correct. Through coupling a user can choose a certain object, from a variety of different objects, which is important for him at a certain moment. This is exactly where coupling can be related to the metaphors of our everyday lives that are used to build up user interfaces. Coupling is the way in which these metaphors are connected to the real world and the manner in which this is expressed in a software system.