1.”Affordances”
“Affordances” is a kind of embodiment of the relationship between people and objects, which is reflected in people’s intuitive awareness of what can be done with objects.
In essence, the direct perception of the possibility of action is the meaning of the concept of “affordances”. The value of a well-designed object is that it has so much force that people who use it can intuitively perceive how the object should be used, and can use it to do things that the designer has never imagined.
The use of affordances is not limited to real objects, but also provides clues for the design of user interface. It suggests that the user interface object should be designed to look like a familiar physical object, which can help the user understand how to operate the object. The slide of slider and the click of button are the embodiment of affordances.
When designing interactive products, it is important to consider which way of behavior is natural for us as human beings, because studies have found that different species have very different perception of affordances. At the same time, more studies show that people’s perception of affordance is the result of human learning and development, and question the concept of being able to directly perceive the possibility of action, which provides new possibilities for designers.
In a word, it is a great challenge to adopt the new concept of affordances in interaction design when people have a deep understanding of the concept of affordances, which will bring far-reaching influence to other designers and practitioners in the future.
2.Affordances of an iPad
① The iPad affords taking and storing digital images.
② Look through the Internet
③ Send and receive e-mails
④ Watch e-books
⑤ Play /Record audio or video
⑥ Painting with apple pencil
⑦ Bluetooth and GPS
⑧ Communicate by FaceTime
⑨ Play video games
⑩ Business office: text editing, form making etc
Reading list：
Interaction Design Foundation – IxDF, 2021. Affordances. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Zb_5VxuM> [Accessed 20 March 2021].
Kaptelinin, V., 2015. Affordances. [online] The Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: <https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/affordances> [Accessed 20 March 2021].
Published
2021/03/21 at 5:59 am
