The Image-Interface

ConclusionInto Visual Hacking

This book studies interfaces as images and images as interfaces. On the one hand, it considers the graphical properties of user interfaces as they appear on electronic screen. On the other hand, it also takes into account the image and graphical representations of symbolic data as a mechanism to interact and produce knowledge. As we have seen, this double perspective has become a prominent paradigm in sciences and humanities, which constantly allow their field to be assisted by software and computers. Moreover, with the growing interest in “data culture” and associated terms (“big data”, “open data”, “data visualization”, “datification”, etc.), the use of graphical methods to present and analyze data has grown exponentially.

The purpose of the book has been to unfold, or rather to have a brief glance at the layers underlying digital imagery. The intention of this endeavor has been to understand how and where graphical supports come from, and to question and make design interventions on them. This pragmatic approach exhorts not only to understand but also to produce new methods and graphical configurations.

The methodology chosen to uncover the intricate layers of digital imagery complexity has followed a rather linear model of semiotic inspiration that goes from signs to texts to objects to practices and then to strategies. At the bottom layer, the most basic and abstract entities are situated, which create meaning: signs. For digital images, the ...