In the discipline of IxD, the word has been used to define a possible action perceived by a user within some environment (Norman 1988). In the classic example, the affordance of a door with a flat metal plate is "push." The affordance resolves to a verb, an action to be performed.
However, of late, I've seen the word used loosely to describe the clues that suggest an object's possible actions. Applied in a colloquial sense to the classic example above, the "affordance" is the flat metal plate. Another example of this usage would be gloss applied to the visual design of a UI button. The gloss itself is the affordance, as opposed to the action "click". I'm curious as to the community's opinion on this matter. How do you use the word in your day to day discussions? Is it appropriate to use the term both ways? Appreciate your opinions, -- chris hlavaty ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
