Week 4: Affordance by DENYI

Definition of AFFORDANCE:

Affordance the quality of an object or an environment which allows an individual to perform an action. In perceptual psychology, affordance is a term created by the perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson to refer to the qualities of the physical world that suggest the possibility of interaction relative to the ability of an actor (person or animal) to interact. McGrenere and Ho presented three fundamental properties of an affordance as defined by Gibson:
- An affordance exists relative to the action capabilities of a particular actor.
- The existence of an affordance is independent of the actor’s ability to perceive it (emphasis added).
- An affordance does not change as the needs and goals of the actor change.

The AFFORDANCE of an object depends on:

- Quality of an object

- Capabilities of an object

- How consumers understand about the object

Perceived AFFORDANCE:

- Coined by Donal Norman

- Refers to perceived properties of the object that suggests how you or the user could use it

Elements of perceived AFFORDANCE:
- context (where)
- culture (society)
- Instinct (unconscious)
- Mental model (expectation)

Forcing functions:
- Interlock
- Lock-in
- Lock-out

Summary:
- All design is persuasive
- Profitable to the client = profitable to user
- Make profit but good for the users
- The design is understandable easily
- The user know what to do with it without any pictures, label or instruction