Design Science: Meaning, Action and Value

In this position paper we sketch our view on a design science entrenched in the constituent parts of meaning, action and value, and their consequences. Our point of departure is that the notion of meaning is central to design: Design is about materializing meaning. To complicate things, the explosive development of technology in computing and tele-communication has seriously challenged the meaning issue. Products are no longer passive: they behave. And this behavior, touching the user’s behavior, has to be designed. We base our view on Eco's approach to semantics. His central terms are translated into a message sequence chart model of a dialogue between user and product. This allows for these terms to be applied to this dialogic behavior, thus giving the initial impetus to a theoretical framework. This paper is our first trial for a comprehensive survey of our view on a design theory for high-tech, highly interactive, and thus behavioral, products. As such it is mainly based on philosophy and examples from design practice, education and research.