Affordances. A term that is not understood by all, yet are subconsciously exposed to both physically and online.
The idea of an affordance can be utilised as an excellent design tool suited to the masses based on their previous understanding of how something works. This can be through visual semiotics or the inferred use of an object.
In the words of Norman himself,
“the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine how the thing could possibly be used.” (1999, p. 9)
For example, the ‘like’ feature on Facebook is understood on a global scale as a click of a button to like a person’s content. There isn’t a written rule-book of how to use Facebook’s features as it is assumed that users will make connections between the visual; a thumbs up, and the written; ‘like’.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/5684115572
The same fundamental principle applies to a new Facebook feature designed for users to engage and explicitly express their feelings towards photos, statuses videos and other user generated content.
https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?quality=100&image_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fo.aolcdn.com%2Fhss%2Fstorage%2Fmidas%2F226d17665a1ca09cee90224f9a7b2741%2F203453015%2Freaction%2Bgraphics.png&client=cbc79c14efcebee57402&signature=6d2713111d7de262c4f37bccb1688180b8c3871b
And if what I’ve attempted to explain still makes absolutely no sense…
References:
Norman, D 1999, Affordance, Conventions and Design (Part 2), Nielson Norman Group, viewed 5 August 2018, <https://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html>.
Norman, D 2002, The Design of Everyday Things, Basic Books, New York.
TED 2009, The three ways that good design makes you happy | Don Norman, Youtube, 9 March, viewed 9 August 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQEoJaLQRA&feature=youtu.be>.