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Affordance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, that allows an individual to perform an action. The term is used in a variety of fields: perceptual psychology, cognitive psychology, environmental psychology, industrial design, humancomputer interaction (HCI), interaction design, instructional design and artificial intelligence. As explained below, different definitions of affordance have developed. The original definition described all action possibilities that are physically possible. This was then refined to describe action possibilities of which an actor is aware. The term has further evolved for use in the context of HCI as indicating the easy discoverability of possible actions.
Contents
1 Affordances as action possibilities 2 Affordances as perceived action possibilities 3 Further shift of meaning 4 False affordance 5 See also 6 References
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likelihood that the actor will sit on the recliner and throw the softball. Effectively, Norman's affordances "suggest" how an object may be interacted with. For example, the size and shape of a softball obviously fits nicely in the average human hand, and its density and texture make it perfect for throwing. The user may also bring past experiences to bear with similar objects (baseballs, perhaps) when evaluating a new affordance. Norman's 1988 definition makes the concept of affordance relational rather than subjective or intrinsic. This he deemed an "ecological approach," which is related to systems-theoretic approaches in the natural and social sciences. The focus on perceived affordances is much more pertinent to practical design problems from a human-factors approach, which may explain its widespread adoption. Norman later explained that this restriction in meaning of the term had been unintended, and that he would replace the term by "perceived affordance" in any future revision of the book.[5][6] However, the definition from his book has become established enough in HCI that both uses have to be accepted as convention in this field.
False affordance
William Gaver [9] divided affordances into three categories: perceptible, hidden, and false. A false affordance is an apparent affordance that does not have any real function, meaning that the actor perceive nonexistent possibilities for action. [10] A good example of a false affordance is a placebo button.[11] In his article, Gaver explains that a hidden affordance indicates that there are possibilities for action, but these are not perceived by the actor. At a perceptible affordance, there is perceptible information available for an existing affordance, meaning that the actor perceives and then acts upon the existing affordance. This means that when affordances are perceptible they offer a direct link between perception and action, and when affordances are hidden or false, they lead to mistakes and misunderstandings.
See also
Usability Action-Specific Perception
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance
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References
1. ^ James J. Gibson (1977), The Theory of Affordances. In Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing, Eds. Robert Shaw and John Bransford, ISBN 0-470-99014-7. 2. ^ James J. Gibson (1979), The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, ISBN 0-89859-959-8. 3. ^ Uexkll, Jakob von (1980 [1920 etc.]): Kompositionslehre der Natur. (Edited by Thure von Uexkll). Frankfurt am Main. 4. ^ Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, ISBN 0-465-06710-7. Originally published under the title The Psychology of Everyday Things, often abbreviated to POET. 5. ^ Donald A. Norman (1999). Affordances, Conventions and Design. Interactions 6(3):38-43, May 1999, ACM Press. 6. ^ Affordance, Conventions and Design (Part 2) (http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html) 7. ^ In HumanComputer Interaction, Preece et al. (1994, p. 6) explicitly define perceived affordances as being a subset of all affordances, but the meanings are intermingled later in the same paragraph by talking about "good affordance". 8. ^ In Universal Principles of Design, Lidwell, Holden & Butler. (2003, p. 20) first give the example of round wheels better affording (i.e., allowing) rolling than square ones, and later that of a door handle "affording" (i.e., suggesting) pulling. 9. ^ Gaver, W. 1991. Technology affordances. In Proceedings of the CHI 1991, ACM Press: New York, 79 84. 10. ^ http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/affordances.html 11. ^ http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2008/10/01/placebo-buttons-false-affordances-and-habit-forming/
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance
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