Donald Norman is an author who has delved into the concept of Affordances in his pieces “The Design of Everyday Things and Affordance, Convention and design” which are the readings we focused our workshop around. Norman describes an affordance as:

“Affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used” –  Donald Norman

Initially at the beginning I had very limited knowledge as to what affordances really meant, however after discussions in class in relation to simple every day objects it became clear that the terms refers to an objects properties that show the possible actions users can take with it, thereby suggesting how one may chose to interact with that object.  For instance, a button can look as if it needs to be turned or pushed. The characteristics of the button which make it look “turnable” or “pushable” together form its affordances. Norman also states the frustration of every day objects functioned and designed poorly, causing immense frustration to viewers.

Something interesting I discovered from Norman’s discussions was that he stated a good established design doesn’t necessarily have to include symbols on it. In fact it typically will incorporate three important aspects: visibility, appropriate clues and most importantly feedback. Feedback is vital for technology to continue to advance and enhance the customers experience due to the importance of listening to them and understanding their underlying needs and expectations. For example when one performs a certain action we need confirmation that this actually occurred and was successfully completed. If we don’t this could result in us thinking the technology/action which we tried to be completed has been unsuccessful and has failed us. For example when we are placing an online purchase on a website and you have just entered you credit card details and the computer is processing it, a loading image appears to inform the user that it is processing and the next page will appear soon, Then a notification appears providing confirmation to the customers saying thank you for your purchase to tell them it was successful, this small function created by the designer enhances the customers overall website experiences and eliminates any confusion.

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things, Basic Book, New York (Sections: Preface vii-xv; Chapter one 1-13; Chapter 4 (constraints) 81-87; (computers) 177-186).

Norman, D 1999, Affordance, conventions and design (Part 2), Nielsen Norman
Group, viewed April 2012, http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html