The communications model

Above are two examples of a communications model. The first is slightly more comprehensive and detailed though the bottom is easier to understand and is more of a summary of the models.

Basically, according to communication models, messages have to come from a source. The source would encode his message and transmit to the receiver who would then decode the message and therefore take action or better known in the communication models as "Feedback" or "changed behaviour".

For a real life example, we'll name the two guys "A" and "B".

A sees a well furnished room and thinks red suits the walls and would therefore encode his thoughts into a sentence.
"Hey B,that is a well furnished room. I think the walls should be painted red!"
The message that B receives depends on the noise or distractions in the room. If the room is noisy then the message would be distorted or if B is not paying enough attention, B would not be able to correctly interpret A's message.

Considering all went well, B would therefore recieve the sentence, and break it up or "decode" it, to fully understand the message A is trying to convey. And with the correct interpretation comes the call for action. B would therefore analyse and evaluate if the room really does look better with red walls.

As designers, we need to realise that there are more than one way of interpretating our works. A person lying down would be interpretated in so many ways. He could be thought of as dead, sleeping, tired, lazy. It is therefore important to try to as much as possible to make the message as apparent and as "legible" as possible.

An example of a design that has been misunderstood would be the 2012 Beijing Olympics logo. Because of its ambigous nature, many people could not seem to aprehend what the logo is about at a glance. There are even people who thought they saw a very explicit content of an oral sex scene.