Affordance in Interaction

Dhaval Vyas, Cristina Chisalita, Gerrit C. van der Veer

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

    41 Citations (Scopus)
    1023 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    The concept of affordance has different interpretations in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). However, its treatment has been merely as a one-to-one relationship between a user and a technology. We believe that a broader view of affordances is needed which encompasses social and cultural aspects of our everyday life. We propose an interaction-centered view of affordance that can be useful for developing better understandings of designed artefacts. An interaction-centered view of affordance suggests that affordance is an interpretative relationship between users and the technology that emerges during the users’ interaction with the technology in the lived environments. We distinguish two broad classes of affordances: affordance in Information and affordance in Articulation. Affordance in information refers to users’ understanding of a technology based on their semantic and syntactic interpretation; and affordance in articulation refers to users’ interpretations about the use of the technology. We also argue that the notion of affordance should be treated at two levels: at the ‘artefact level’ and at the ‘practice level’. Consequently, we provide two examples to demonstrate our arguments.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication13th European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics
    EditorsAntonio Rizzo, Gudela Grote, William Wong
    Place of PublicationNew York
    PublisherACM Press
    Pages92-99
    Number of pages8
    ISBN (Print)978-3-906509-23-5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 19 Sep 2006
    Event13th European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics, ECCE 2006 - Zurich, Switzerland
    Duration: 20 Sep 200622 Sep 2006
    Conference number: 13

    Publication series

    NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series
    PublisherACM Press

    Conference

    Conference13th European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics, ECCE 2006
    Abbreviated titleECCE
    Country/TerritorySwitzerland
    CityZurich
    Period20/09/0622/09/06

    Keywords

    • HMI-HF: Human Factors
    • Affordance
    • HCI
    • Interpretations & meanings
    • Structuration theory
    • Technology-in-practice

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