Learning 'Symbolic Interaction' (Design blog - week 2)

 

This week’s design deep dive honestly started in the most random way possible, scrolling on Instagram. I wasn’t even looking for inspiration just doing that classic “let me just scroll, cause im bored” and suddenly it’s been 20 minutes when a post talking about symbolic interaction popped up. For some reason the phrase hit me harder than I expected. Something about it just felt bigger, like it had more layers than what was on the surface. So, naturally, I went down a tiny rabbit hole and ended up watching this video:

                                                        The Design Theory of 'Symbolic Interaction'

What really stuck out from the video was the idea that symbolic interaction isn’t just about the symbol itself, it’s about the ongoing conversation people have with that symbol. It’s more like a loop the designer puts meaning into a symbol, people respond to it based on their experiences, and that response then shapes the symbol’s identity over time. One thing the video pointed out that I found super interesting was how meaning is never “final.” Symbols evolve. A color, an icon, even a typeface can shift in emotional weight depending on culture, context, and the audience interacting with it. That kind of flexibility in meaning is something I don’t think I fully appreciated before.

Another subtle point the video makes one that’s easy to miss on a first watch is how symbolic interaction actually affects behavior, not just interpretation. It shapes how people navigate the world, what they choose, what they trust, what they remember, all based on this invisible agreement we have with symbols. And as a designer, that’s kind of wild to think about. The choices we make the layout, the colors, the icons aren’t just aesthetic. They guide how people move through a design and how they feel while doing it. It made me rethink how intentional I need to be in the small decisions, because the “small” decisions are what people interact with the most.

But realistically I'm glad that I found that start to the rabbit hole, cause I would've never known about this theory whatsoever,and it also felt like one of those moments where the universe throws you a topic right when you’re ready to actually understand it. Symbolic interaction isn’t just theory it’s one of the engines behind good design. I’m glad I stumbled across it because now I’m looking at my design choices a little differently. Not just asking “does this look good?” but “what is this making people feel, and why?” And that’s a shift I definitely needed, and a shift that going forward will change at how I really look at using symbols the correct way.

 

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