I am also jointly responsible for planning and teaching the undergraduate course in Construction of Programs, based around HTML and Java.

Thesis contents - on-line version

Note that this was generated by Microsoft Word. I've tried to tidy it up into an acceptable Web document but cannot take responsibility if it it doesn't look too good. In particular, some symbols and Greek words use the 'Symbol' font and may not look right on your computer.

• Abstract & acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 Subject area
  • 1.2 Research problem
  • 1.3 Possible approaches
  • 1.4 Research objectives
  • 1.5 Research methods
  • 1.6 Dissertation outline
• 2 Computing and metaphor
  • 2.1 Metaphor
  • 2.2 Other ways of naming new concepts
  • 2.3 Interface metaphors
  • 2.4 Mixing metaphors
  • 2.5 Similar interface concepts
  • 2.6 Benefits and dangers of computing metaphors
• 3 A semiotic model of HCI
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Semiotics
  • 3.3 Two types of metaphor
  • 3.4 Alternative approaches
  • 3.5 Developing a semiotic model of HCI
  • 3.6 Applying semiotics to HCI
• 4 Preliminary studies
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Analysis by trope of MS-DOS
  • 4.3 A semiotic analysis of the Macintosh interface
  • 4.4 Comparing metaphor categories
  • 4.5 The Three Systems
  • 4.6 Experiment Design
  • 4.7 Results
  • 4.8 Conclusions
  • 4.9 Summary of conceptual model
• 5 Methods
  • 5.1 Selection of methods
  • 5.2 Research design
  • 5.3 Implementation
  • 5.4 Analysis
• 6 Results
  • 6.1 Quantitative analysis
  • 6.2 Qualitative analysis
  • 6.3 Assessing the value of the technique
• 7. Conclusions
  • 7.1 Summary of findings
  • 7.2 The LoS model
  • 7.3 The LoS model and interface metaphors
  • 7.4 Potential for further research
• References

The following appendices were originally included but have been omitted from the on-line or downloadable versions.

• Appendix A: Tropes
• Appendix B: Semiotic analysis
• Appendix C: Experiment results
• Appendix D: Content analysis
• Appendix E: Economic impact

Thesis download

You can download the complete thesis, apart from appendices, as a Macintosh Stuffit archive or as a PC zip file. I have saved it as Word 5.1 and Word for Windows 2.0 respectively. This may mean some formatting is lost but guarantees freedom from the viruses that plague more recent versions of Word. Just click on the link below - if your browser tries to show the file instead of downloading it, try holding down the option key (Mac) or using the right mouse button (PC). There were some problems with the previous PC version of this - probably because it was stuffed on a Mac. I'm afraid there's not a lot I can do about this as the unzipped thesis is huge.

Click here to download Mac version (238K)

Click here to download PC version (228K)