I would agree that the term is less than perfectly communicative but from my own opinion I think this has come from Normans second interpretation of the term and where 'perceived affordances' has dirtied the waters and where Norman has openly admitted that has had to spend much time in clarifying his own interpretation.
I believe thats where the problems have risen in discipline of IxD both terms by Gibson and Norman are being used and applied, however I would always recommend going back to the original term and the understanding as set out by Gibson, as many a time the term affordance is used to actually mean symbolic communication. So I am of the opinion to ever use only one to and to ensure that that the clarity of the term(it was recommended by a friend to use a drum to explain the concept too and what a affordances a drum provides, and move away from a door which I have found helpful in communicating the idea) as I truly believe affordances can provide a real insight for designers. Some really helpful material I have used if your interested further: Gaver, W. (1996). Affordances for interaction: The social is material for design. Ecological Psychology, 8(2). Gaver, W. (1991). Technology affordances. Proceedings of CHI, 1991 (New Orleans, Lousiana, USA, April 28 - May 2, 1991) ACM, New York. Joanna McGrenere and Wayne Ho (2000)"Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concept", Graphics Interface, pg "179--186" The use of affordances by Sellen & Harper in the book the myth of the paperless office I have also found as a good application of the term in understanding paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=27380 ________________________________________________________________ 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
