Maria Reile
Research fellow in experimental pragmatics at the University of Tartu and UX writing enthusiastMaria is a research fellow in experimental pragmatics and a UX writing enthusiast with a PhD in general linguistics. She studies how meaning is created in language use, and which affective factors lead us to choose one linguistic expression over another during interaction. In her latest project, she focuses on how meaning is created in human-to-computer interaction (in written form). Her research questions include the following: Are there any specific design and language patterns that make communication with the user effective? Do design and linguistic meaning support each other and make this communication effective or are they contradictory and disrupt the user experience? Which cues are stronger – visual or linguistic – and in which situations?
Talk
Interaction in digital environments – how users perceive design and language together
In addition to interacting with other people, humans interact with digital systems through user interfaces (UIs). While a lot of research has been done in regards how human cognition relates to human-system interaction, little is known how linguistic meaning shapes interaction with UI design. Therefore, it is essential to study language use within digital environments, since language constitutes as a major medium of digital communication.
In this talk, we will give an overview and first results of a project that focuses on human-computer interaction in digital environments with a focus on distinguishing between buttons and links. First, we present the results of a corpus study mapping the linguistic and visual features of buttons and links in 315 Estonian websites (from both private and business sectors). This allows us to define the current patterns used in Estonian websites to indicate the elements functionality, i.e., its meaning formed by the visual cues (design) and language cues (linguistic semantics). Then we present the results of a web-based experiment, where we test the effect of these visual and linguistic cues on element interpretation defined in the first study. In this experiment, the participants are shown pictures of success notifications that include buttons and/or links. The participants’ task is to decide how many buttons and links they see on the notification. We aim to get responses from at least 380 participants to ensure sufficient statistical power to explore the interplay between visual and linguistic cues and to pinpoint the effects of language on element identification.
This talk is meant for everyone interested in language and design and how even subtle language cues may affect the way we interact with UI design.