In this week we took a look at Affordances, Perceived Affordance, Constraints and how to identify the difference.
A highlight of the seminar was when i was introduced to a video of an enthusiastic Donald Norman who i thought was doing a circus act with objects he found lying around his house. But no, to my disappointment he was just explaining Affordances in a way which entertained me and i would definitely pay to see him live.
I learnt an Affordance is a possibility how an object can be used. This may not be how you would typically use the object but nothing is stopping you from using it that way. Like in Norman’s Video, he demonstrated using a book as a hat for protection from the rain and weather. As well as the common affordance which is obviously reading the book. And that would be your Perceived Affordance, its intended use. In other words the way we were brought up using an object. Its a behavioural thing. Just like we saw in the ‘Affordance’ YouTube Video by Udacity in the lecture. Its prime example was kettle, they mention that even if you have never seen one, you would naturally grab the handle and this stood out to me and i almost had an extensional crisis about a freakin kettle! I have never thought about how trained we are to figure out how to use an object without even consciously thinking about it. We just do it in that split second before interacting with an object. Weird. Because yeah obviously we know that if you grabbed the kettle by the spout, it would burn you and would be hard to pour. So it makes sense to go for the handle. I don’t know why this baffled me but i definitely had a moment.
The final aspect was constraints, these are limitations to using an object whether it was for the intended use or a completely different use. There are four types of constraints and we discussed them in the tutorial.
Physical – Physical limitations constrain physical operations, Eg. You wouldn’t use a chair as a skateboard. 🙂
Cultural – from country to country – Japan doesn’t use water bottles as such, more of a drink-and-throw-out whereas in Australia we use plastic and glass bottles as reusable drink bottles and we reuse them and keep them for a while.
Semantic – meaning of language – “rely on the meaning of the situation to control a set of possible actions” Norman says “Semantic constraints rely upon our knowledge of the situation and of the world.” which help us determine these things.
Logical – A water bottle that is traditional larger wont fit in most a car cup holders. Glass drink bottles aren’t the most practical for taking out and about since it can smash and you can’t put glass bottle in the freezer as well as you can’t have hot liquids in some types of glass. So for these reasons thats why most people opt for plastic drink bottles.
Now i feel like an expert on Affordances, Perceived Affordances and Constraints and feel like i could be Donald Norman in that exceptional video. Donald Norman is my spirit animal for sure. 🙂