for academic scholars, who get to write learned articles about the true meaning of the term.

People need some way of understanding the product or service—some sign of what it is for, what is happening, and what the alternative actions are. People search for clues, for any sign that might help them cope and understand. It is the sign that is important, anything that might signify meaningful information. Designers need to provide these clues. Forget affordances: What people need, and what design must provide, are signifiers. Because most actions we do are social, the most important class of these are social signifiers.

We are all detectives searching for clues to enable us to function in this complex world. Whether it is flags waving in the wind, the difference between empty or crowded train platforms, or the desire lines illustrated by footprints in the fields, we search for significant signs in the world that offer guidance. In the social world comprising people and technology, these cues are social signifiers.

Consider a bookmark, a deliberately placed signifier of one’s place in a book. But the physical nature of books also makes them an accidental social signifier, for the placement of the bookmark tells the reader how much of the story remains. Most readers have learned to use this accidental signifier to aid in their enjoyment of the reading. With few pages left, we know the end is near. And if the reading is torturous, as in a school assignment, one can always console oneself by knowing “only a few more pages to

get through.” Electronic book readers do not have the physical structure of paper books, so unless the designer deliberately provides a cue, they need not convey any signal at all about the amount of text remaining. The traditional browser on the computer screen provides a deliberate social signifier, with the position of the scrollbar showing how much more of the document remains and its length showing what proportion is visible at the moment. Hill, Hollan, Wroblewski, and

McCandless’s addition of usage marks—edit wear and read wear—is yet another clever way for designers to add signifiers to guide readers of electronic documents [ 1].

The signifier is an important communication device to the recipient, whether or not communication was intended. From the purpose of surviving in the world, it doesn’t matter to an individual whether the useful signal was deliberate or incidental: To the recipient, no distinction is necessary. Why should it matter whether the flag was placed as a deliberate clue to wind direction (at airports or on the masts of sailboats) or whether it was there as an advertisement or symbol of pride in one’s country (on public buildings): Once I interpret the flag’s motion to indicate wind direction, the flag’s intended usage no longer matters.

Whatever their nature, planned or accidental, signifiers provide valuable cues as to the nature of the world and of social activities. For us to function in this social, technological world, we need to develop internal models of what things mean,

of how they operate. We seek all possible cues to help in this enterprise, and in this way, we all act as detectives, searching for whatever guidance we might find. If we are fortunate, thoughtful designers provide the clues for us. Otherwise, we must use our creativity and imagination. (This is the premise behind Distributed Cognition [ 2].)

Social signifiers replace affordances, for they are broader and richer, allowing for accidental signifiers as well as deliberate ones, and even for items that signify through their absence, as the lack of crowds on a train platform. The perceivable part of an affordance is a signifier, and if deliberately placed by a designer, it is a social signifier.

Designers of the world: Forget affordances. Provide signifiers.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Don Norman wears many hats, including cofounder of the Nielsen Norman group, professor at Northwestern University, and author. It should not come as a surprise to learn that social signifiers play a major role in his new book, tentatively entitled Sociable Dezsign. He lives at jnd.org.

DOI: 10.1145/1409040.1409044
© 2008 ACM 1072-5220/08/1100 $5.00

[ 1] Hill, W., J. D. Hollan, D. Wroblewski, and T. McCandless. “Edit Wear and Read Wear: Text and Hypertext.” Working paper. CHI’92, Monterey, Calif., 1992.

[ 2] Hollan, J. D., E. Hutchins, and D. Kirsh. “Distributed Cognition: A New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research.” ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction: Special Issue on Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millennium 7, no. 2 (2000): 174-196. < http://hci.ucsd.edu/ lab/hci_papers/JH1999- 2.pdf>