… “The term affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine how the thing could possibly be used” (Norman 1988, 9).
This week we’ve taken a look into what ‘affordances’ actually are in order to properly explore the prompt we were given last week: “How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are being authored, produced and distributed in the network”. To begin to really understand affordances, we looked at it through the lens of Donald Norman’s ‘The Psychology of Everyday Things’ (1988).
In relation to Instagram there are a few affordances and constraints that the app either has now or has had in the past that may that affect the way in which photos and videos are authored. For example, Instagram stories until recently only allowed the user to upload photos onto their stories that fit a certain size dimension, and if the photo did not fit the requirement the app would either automatically zoom or cut the photo to fit the required dimension. The below photos show how this works.
Because This may in turn affect the way in which we choose photos to upload onto Instagram, for example photos shot horizontally with people in them right to the sides may not be suitable to upload onto an ‘Insta Story’ unless the user is willing to make the whole photo smaller (see first photo).
I think Instagram is an interesting case study into an application/social network that has continued to update, upgrade and build in more affordances to appeal to as many users as possible. For example, the app used to be exclusively photos of a certain size dimension that other users could like or comment on, there was no messaging, no videos or stories or many of the other affordances that are now built into the Instagram system.
In terms of this week’s first reading, ‘The Psychology of Everyday Things’ by Donald Norman (1988), it’s a really interesting, thorough look into affordances and how they are so relevant to everything we use in our everyday lives. His suggestions about affordances and their relationship with ‘constraints’ and ‘mappings’ (1988, 12) is as relevant as ever. However his examples are a little outdated. Technology and what we now use in our everyday lives has advanced so much now that it would be interesting to hear his theories about affordances within modern technology like Instagram, and whether he would even consider them actual affordances or whether he would consider them ‘perceived affordances’ (Norman, 2004). The article he wrote in 2004 “Affordance, Convention and Design (Part 2) explores the difference between affordances and perceived affordances and helps to clear up some of the misinterpretations. However even since 2004 technology and the way in which we engage with it has advanced exponentially, and social media in particular is nothing like it was back in 2004. So while it serves as some sort of revised update, it still feels a little outdated.
I’m interested to discuss more in class about how the affordances of Instagram in particular, but also other social media platforms change the way in which we engage with them whether it be deliberate or not from the designers part. Then to see how these same affordances may even begin to create cultural norms and form “conventions” (Norman 1988, 55).
References:
– Norman, D. (1995). The Psychology of Everyday Things. 2nd ed. [London]: BasicBooks, p.55.
– Jnd.org. (2004). Don Norman’s jnd.org / Affordance, Conventions and Design (Part 2). [online] Available at: https://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html [Accessed 26 Jul. 2018].
