Abstract
Semiotic thinking about cities, that is through the prism of their ways of representing various meanings, symbolic values and communication in this text is set into the framework of the User Experience (UX) Design. The primary aspect through which the city is perceived is the appropriation of public spaces by two different communities: Experts and Users – two groups engaged in daily communication situations within a city. Design and appropriation are viewed as a tool for modulation of a language of the city. While it is the inhabitants who use the city, and thus define it, experts exercise the power of setting communication norms and have the responsibility for the User-Centered Design approach in built environments. Elements of the “Language of the City” concept are explored and offered in a perspective of the User-Centered Design.
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- 1.
The decision to build the Metro was taken by the Stockholm City Council in 1941. The first part of the Stockholm Metro was opened in 1950 and most of the system was completed by 1960, although further parts were added until the middle of the 1970s. (Börjesson et al. 2014) The “Högertrafikomläggningen”, or the day of change of the traffic direction in Sweden, took place on September 3rd, 1967. (Norén 2019).
- 2.
An activity recently discussed in Prague in a dramatic way, in relation to the politically controversial statue of Ivan Konev, the Soviet general on Vítězné náměstí; or to the reinstallation of the religiously controversial Marian Column on the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí).
- 3.
For example see Gautrand 2016.
- 4.
His collection of essays from 1963–1973 was not published until 1995. See Barthes, 1995.
- 5.
The situation was recently covered in the Czech press by Formánek 2019.
- 6.
As admitted by Viktor Dudr from SONS (Prague organization of people with visual impairment) in my 2012 personal interview. Dudr had to decide on the frequency during the telephone call with a technician making the setting on-site.
- 7.
A representation of one medium in another; Bolter and Grusin (2000) argue that remediation is a defining characteristic of the new digital media.
- 8.
In the subway system in Stockholm, Sweden, the sign marking the escalator from the platform to the higher level, will read “Upp” (Up). The opposite side will not be marked with a word Down, but “Ej upp” (Not up). So, in fact the message is not signifying the direction of the escalator’s motion, but the passenger’s destination after taking the ride.
- 9.
In February 2020, new signs prohibiting so called “Beer Bikes” began to appear in the streets of Prague.
- 10.
Kukal (2019) protests to the design flaws of new tramways Škoda 14T and 15T in Prague by not paying the fare on these particular vehicles.
- 11.
Lieberman et al. (2013) propose the following definition: End User Development (EUD) can be defined as a set of methods, techniques, and tools that allow users of software systems, who are acting as non-professional software developers, at some point to create, modify, or extend a software artifact.
- 12.
In his utopist text, Baczko (1989) talks about Lunol, a city of 650.000, placed on the Moon: “The foreigner never needs to ask here – the architecture talks to him with universal language of well-ordered forms…”.
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Farkas, P. (2020). Appropriation, Design and User Experience in Public Spaces as a Part of the Language of the City. In: Marcus, A., Rosenzweig, E. (eds) Design, User Experience, and Usability. Case Studies in Public and Personal Interactive Systems. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12202. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49757-6_8
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