What Are You Trying to Say? The Interface as an Integral Element of Argument

Abstract

Graphical interfaces to digital scholarly editions are usually regarded as disconnected from the content of the edition, enough so that an argument has developed against the use of interfaces at all. We argue in this paper that the indifference and even hostility to interfaces is caused by a widespread incomprehension of their argumentative utility. In a pair of case studies of published digital editions, we conduct a detailed examination of the argument their interface makes, and compare these interface rhetorics with the stated intentions of the editors, exposing a number of contradictions between ‘word’ and ‘deed’ in the interface designs. We end by advocating for an explicit consideration of the semiotic significance of the elements of a user interface: that editors reflect on what aspect of the argument their interface expresses, and how that is adding, or perhaps subtracting, from the points they wish to make.

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