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- Tags: diseño fav percepción
[!summary]Affordances are action possibilities based on users’ capabilities when interacting with objects. They are not inherent properties of objects but are defined by the user-object relationship. Signifiers play a crucial role in guiding users to perceive affordances correctly in design.
Highlights
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An affordance is what a user can do with an object based on the user’s capabilities. As such, an affordance is not a “property” of an object (like a physical object or a User Interface). Instead, an affordance is defined in the relation between the user and the object: A door affords opening if you can reach the handle. For a toddler, the door does not afford opening if she cannot reach the handle. An affordance is, in essence, an action possibility in the relation between user and an object.
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Don Norman later (1988) introduced the term to the design community modified the meaning slightly to make it more appropriate for use by designers. For example, Don Norman defined affordances as perceivable action possibilities – i.e., only actions which users consider possible. So, designers must create objects’ affordances to conform to users’ needs based on these users’ physical and perceptual capabilities, goals and past experiences. Clear affordances are vital to usability. Users will map the possibilities of what an object does according to their conceptual model of what that object should do (e.g., inserting fingers into scissor holes to cut things).