Broadening the notion of affordances

In the design of physical objects and user interfaces, an object’s “affordances” are how the object’s appearances suggest to the user how the object should be interacted with.

Different door handles have different affordances.

Image source: What are affordances, and why do they matter?

In this post, I want to broaden the meaning of “affordances”.

Multiple tools may be all used for the same kind of task. Eg for recording textual information, there’s pen and paper, a word processor, a whiteboard, and voice notes. 

While the standard notion of affordances in design is “how the object suggests it may be used, before it is used”, the notion we’re describing here concerns how the object, while it is being used, shapes how the user does the task.

A whiteboard suits getting info down fairly quickly, in bullet points, and for drawing arrows between items to show their relationships.

A word processor encourages writing in full sentences. Because we can easily see what we’ve already noted down, they also encourage us to write in sequences of sentences and paragraphs.

Pencil and paper seems to be part way between the free-form nature of the whiteboard and the more regimented form of the word processor.

Voice notes are more focused on the present moment. You can’t see what you’ve already said, and it’s more effort to go back to hear the early part of the note. They’re good for brainstorming.

The traditional notion of affordances covers how the design of an object affects a user’s expectations about how to use that object, before they actually use it. We’re expanding this notion to also include how an object’s design shapes the way it is used by a user.