Semiotics, Information Architecture and Blended Places

Abstract

This paper is an exploratory overview on how Semiotics can approach the study of cross-channel ecosystems – that I call blended places – term used in the field of Information Architecture to refer to those spatial systems where analogical and digital elements are blended together to create a novel cross-channel user experience that cannot be reduced to only physical or only digital dimension.
After discussing why the Internet can be studied as a space and why today the opposition “analogical vs digital” is no more relevant in our socio-cultural life, I take into account the perspective of Information Architecture on spatiality to show some theoretical aspects Semiotics can focus on in order to analyse this new.