November 7th 2011 Lecture

This week lecture is about affordance.

An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling. The term is used in a variety of fields: perceptual psychology, cognitive psychology, environmental psychology, industrial design, human–computer interaction (HCI), interaction design, instructional design and artificial intelligence.

for example 

• doors are for.....
• door knob are for ......
• windows are for .....

The perceived affordance an object (or interface element) is determined by factors including:context: the environment or process in which the element is displayed; culture: the influence of societal ‘norms’ on the individual’s understanding and use of a object; instinct: an unconscious association, often linked to phsical characteristics, for example, the size of an object in relation to the human form; mental model: the user’s understanding and expectations of interaction with the object.
Affordance Manipulation
To create something that cannot be avoid. like keyboard, without it, we can't use the computer.

Be a little bit clever or use the forcing function

• Lock in -  can't quit certain application until something is done.
• Lock out  - can't open certain application until certain action is taken to open it.
• Interlock - combine the element of Lock in and Lock out , most common forcing function mechanism.

Conclusion

• All design are persuasive
• profitable to client and profitable to the user.
• without user. your interface can't work

Raja Abdul Azim
1102702076