Aesthetics in Design Semiotics Research. Developing foundations to better comprehend cultural habits and codes in bottom-up design processes

Designers play an important role in shaping artifacts, but they are no longer in charge of the entire design process. Who else then is in charge? How to cope with scientific research in design? This paper is motivated by discussions on how to analyze bottom-layer features and the role of design-agents (designers, users, and researchers/semioticians). Focusing on sense attribution to artifacts and consequences thereof that unfold when they are positioned in specific contexts, the concepts of cultural habits and codes have supported our reflections on aesthetic issues in field research. We are delving into how to systematically inquire into habits that lead users to attribute functions to artifacts. As a result, the Trefoil Model have emerged as a theoretical proposal to support the comprehension of semiosic fluxes in development, fruition, and analysis of artifacts, which may foster interplay among design-agents in processes of design of artifacts from a pragmatistic perspective.