Why do people produce gesture?

Hi all,

In class I received an article about communication gesture with some interesting results about why human beings produce gesture.

First, a gesture is a movement with the hands produced by people, some people state a gesture involves a movement of the whole body. There are all different types of gestures such as, gestures used in deaf sign language or a nervous scratch. This blog is about communication gestures.

When people are communicating face to face they move their body continuously. All movements of the body, from crossing the legs to playing with an object while communication, belongs to communication gestures.

Just like (most likely) most of you do, I gesture all the time. However, I’m not sure why I do that. Do you know why you gesture?

There exist two theories about why people gesture, the Lexical Retrieval Hypothesis (LRH) and the Information Packing Hypothesis (IPH). Scholars that support the LRH theory state that people gesture to help listeners to understand what the speaker is saying. Alternatively, the IPH theory argues that gesture and speech help to constitute thought and that gestures reflect the mental representation that is activated at the moment of speaking.

It looks like that helping listeners to better understand a conversation is not the main function of gesture, scholars have laid evidence that blind speakers spontaneously gesture, even when they speak to blind listeners.

What do you think? Why do you gesture while speaking, to help the listener or to help yourself by organizing your thoughts? It would be interesting if you share your thoughts in a comment.

Brilliant marketing campaign

Dear all,

When I was surfing the web I ran into a brilliant video about a marketing campaign of a supermarket in South Korea. Koreans are the second most hard working people in the world, the idea of the supermarket was help these busy customers by bringing the supermarket to them.

To achieve this they created a virtual supermarket at subway stations. People need to scan the QR code, with their mobile phone, of the product they want to buy and the product ends up in their online shopping list. After the shopping is done it will be delivered at their home.

I added the video to this blog, you really should watch it and please do not hesitate to leave comments.

Find my previous blog if you want more information about QR codes in general.

QR codes

Have you heard about QR (abbreviated from Quick Response) codes yet? You may have seen QR codes on billboards, in magazines, on web pages or on business cards. QR codes have been created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in Japan in 1994. QR codes have become more and more popular the last couple of years however, not everyone is familiar with these codes.

For the ones who haven’t heard about an QR code before, an QR code is a two dimensional code that is readable by QR barcode readers and camera’s on mobile phones. An QR code is actually similar to the barcodes on the retail products you buy. The difference between the two is the amount of data they can hold. An QR code looks like this:

No matter how small or large your business is, you could use the QR code in a million ways. The barcode reader translates the QR code into:

-          An hyperlink that brings you to an website, image of YouTube video

-          Contact details such as telephone number or e-mail address

-          Event details

-          readable text
…. and so on

Instead of showing your target a message such as, “Find us on Facebook” you can display your QR code that brings people directly to your Facebook page, all they need to do is scan the QR code with the camera of their mobile phone. QR codes save your target time so don’t hesitate to create one!

In my next blog I will show you a brilliant video about the use of QR codes. For now, you can watch the video below to be more informed.