Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

communities can only be fully understood when these technologies are adopted by professional
design communities. In conclusion, I believe such a perspective could contribute to the research
and practice of collaborative design in digital environments by focusing on the multimodal
semiotics of collaborative design activities in VWs, outlining the modes that are used in the design
process, and the dynamic interplay between the social functions of virtual designs.
9.3. Further research directions
As I have outlined throughout the dissertation, my aim has been to build interdisciplinary
theoretical and methodological frameworks for the study of the co-design activities in VWs as
mediated social actions. For this purpose, I explored a variety of design contexts and produce the
data by using different sources. This final section will conclude the discussions through an
overview of the intended contributions and further directions for research on virtual places.
Overview of the theoretical and methodological contributions
The social semiotic perspective on multimodal sign-making contributes to the understanding of codesign
in two significant ways. First, the multimodal analysis provides categories and models on
socio-semiotic orchestration of the modes in designed places and artifacts as socially functional
sign systems. When combined with the ethno-methodological perspective on contextual factors,
the overall analysis reveals how purposeful orchestration of modes presents experiential,
interpersonal and textual meaning potentials. Applying the rhetorical perspective to collaborative
design of the virtual places and artifacts requires consideration of the social actors, available tools
and resources, environments, processes and products of designing as central resource to analyze
how signs (the virtual places and artifacts) are made. The systemic functional model considers not
only usability or aesthetics as design functions, but covers their experiential, interpersonal, and
textual meaning potentials. Drawing on Poynton (1993), it is important to both read
(interpretively reflect on) the meaning potentials of the analytical objects, and investigate their
social histories, the co-designers’ perspectives on framing the meaning-making in context,
semiotic transformations of meaning resources and the (intended) outcomes of designerly activity.
From a design research point of view, I contribute to the field by explaining the social situations in
which technologies and practices of digital communication and collaborative design converge. The
analysis supports the overarching social semiotic framing of design as a social process, which is
based on assessment and transformation of various modalities as design elements.
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