Design Semiosis

Products are designed by someone to be perceived by§someone.§§Design Semiosis was originally presented as a§Doctoral Thesis for the Dept. of Machine Design at§the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockhom, Sweden.§It contains a concept that speaks about the synthesis§of physical products by a human designer. The§foundations of this concept are the semiotics of§Charles S. Peirce and the sign theories of Charles W.§Morris. To these are added ideas about the nature of§product properties.§§Traditional research in product design typically§suggests analytical acts in synthesis, based on§empirical research. Design Semiosis presents an§application of abduction to propose that the§designers' perception of a products' properties is§the natural driver behind synthesis.§§The concept of Design Semiosis is that there are 10§levels of semiotic signed properties that a human§designer works with through their perception of the§artifact being designed. Several examples using these§levels are presented.§§Currently, work continues with Design Semiosis§applied to product and design specifications.