affordance
Aug. 9th, 2023 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordaffordance (uh-FAWR-duhns) - n., (design) the qualities of an object that defines its possible uses or makes clear how it can or should be used.
When you see a doorknob:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
its affordances show you how to use it. Originally coined in 1966 by psychologist James J. Gibson in the more general meaning what the environment offers the individual, in a sensory way, and appropriated in 1988 by Donald Norman for the domain of human-computer interaction, to describe those action possibilities that are readily perceivable by an actor -- and it is has since been generalized to other design environments. The coinage is using afford in the obsolete sense of offer, provide, or supply.
---L.
When you see a doorknob:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
its affordances show you how to use it. Originally coined in 1966 by psychologist James J. Gibson in the more general meaning what the environment offers the individual, in a sensory way, and appropriated in 1988 by Donald Norman for the domain of human-computer interaction, to describe those action possibilities that are readily perceivable by an actor -- and it is has since been generalized to other design environments. The coinage is using afford in the obsolete sense of offer, provide, or supply.
---L.
