Saturday, 12 November 2011

Week 4 Affordance

In this week class, lecturer taught us about " affordance".

So what is affordance?
An affordance is created by JJ Gibson, it means that a quality of an object or an environment which allows an individual to perform an action.

Properties of Affordance?
  • exists relative to the action capabilities of a particular actor.
  • existence is independent of the actor's ability to perceive it.
  • element of perceived: Context-where, Culture-society, Instince-unconscious and Mental model-expectation.
Examples:
  • door knobs are for.....?
  • slots are for.....?
  • balls are for.....?


The point of affordance is When it's taken advantage of , the user knows what to do just by looking at it ; no picture,label or instruction needed.


When we change the affordance, we must make sure that the changing is from the bad one to a better one.

Affordance in Graphic user interface
  • important concept
  • sliders and scroll bars afford dragging
  • button drawn as 3D shape appear to "stick out" and afford pushing
question to think about....
How do affordances apply to robotics? How does a robot dog know what to do with a ball?


Perceived affordance
  • coined by Donald Norman
  • more interested in what the user perceived than what is actually true
  • refers to perceived properties o the object that suggest how you/ the user could use it.
Element
  • Context (where)
  • Culture (society)
  • Instinct (unconcious)
  • Mental models (expectations)
Why we have affordances in Design?
Design with intent - to guide users
  • guiding user- what actions are possible
  • product design
Forcing function
  • design the system so that the right behavior before the user can take the next step.
  • forces attention upon something and disrupts the efficient.
  • eg.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 user know what to do with the thing without any pictures, label or instruction.
Reference link:
http://www.swimmingpoolsigns.com/Pool-Signs/Funny-Sign-Please-Dont-Pee-in-our-Pool/SKU-S-5607.aspx

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