Conceptual, Semantic, Syntactic and Lexical Design

Foley and Van Dam's (et al.) much cited (but little used) elements of UI
design are:

Conceptual (frequently omitted in citations, I notice)
Semantic (functional)
Syntactic (sequencing)
Lexical (hardware binding)

I have no trouble describing most of these sensibly (at least I like to
think so<g>), but semantic/functional is giving me trouble. If concepts
(e.g. a conceptual model including attributes and relationships) are
dealt with at the conceptual level and sequences (e.g. use cases or user
stories) are dealt with at the syntactic level, what does semantic or
functional design look like? The sort of thing I can think of is what it
means to drag a document to a folder. Do others agree? How does it apply
to output/feedback from the system? Is it mostly to do with state
changes in the interface?

Thoughts and examples gratefully received!

TIA!

Regards,

William Hudson
Syntagm Ltd
Design for Usability
US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM
UK 01235-522859
World +44-1235-522859
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.syntagm.co.uk

PS - The reference is Foley, van Dam, Feiner and Hughes (1990),
_Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice_, Addison-Wesley

There is a "reissued" edition available:
Amazon.com -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/asin/0201848406/syntagmltd02
Amazon.co.uk (paperback) -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/asin/0321210565/syntagmltd

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