Bill Gaver's Concept of Affordances Flashcards
What are the three types of affordances?
Perceptible, hidden, and false affordances.
What are perceptible affordances?
Action possibilities identified by perceptual information.
Where a particular action possibility is revealed or indicated by perceptual characteristics of the object/thing itself.
which refers to an affordance we are able to determine on the basis of its perceptual characteristics.
e.g., a door handle provides perceptual information, which the user is able to interpret unconsciously, to determine this is the actionable component that affords pulling.
What are hidden affordances?
Unaccompanied perceptual information.
Where there is no perceptual information available to allow the user to determine an action possibility. For example, many affordances in graphical user interface design are hidden, and the user has to rely on experience and/or trial-and-error activities to identify a particular action possibility.
e.g., command buttons are often made to appear as though they protrude from the display, aiding the perception of the affordance of pressing.
What are sequential affordances?
Action possibilities that are grouped according to time.
i.e., one leading to another in a logical or meaningful order
What are nested affordances?
Action possibilities that are grouped according to location.
i.e., related actions grouped together
Affordances are properties of the world defined with respect to people’s ______ with it.
interaction
To apply sequential affordances, what would you do?
Break the process into individual screens where users have fewer action possibilities to consider before they can reach each next stage.
Bill Gaver proposed there are three types of affordance in HCI, one of which emphasizes the importance of clear information associated with an affordance, which one is it?
Perceptible Affordances
What are false affordances?
Affordances - Where the user is led to believe a certain, meaningful action is afforded, on the basis of perceptual information, but it is not the case. For example, if a handle were attached to a solid wall, the user may perceive the affordance to open something on the wall, which would be disproved if the user were to interact with object, but this would waste their time and make them look silly in the process.
What are the two states affordances can be assessed and evaluated?
- The ease with which an affordance can be undertaken.
- The quality and clarity of the perceptual and/or semantic information associated with an affordance that is provided to the actor/user/agent.
Hidden affordances are acceptable when…?
The designer is dealing with experienced users
e.g., swiss army knife
Which of the following could you call a false affordance?
a. A green button to cancel an order.
b. A giant button to place an order.
c. A help button that leads to a forum full of other users’ questions and answers.
a. A green button cancel an order
