Klaus B. Bærentsen
ABSTRACT
The concept of affordance was introduced to the field of HCI as a means to enhance the understandability and usability of artifacts and especially their user interface. The results have however not been entirely convincing. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the concept of affordance coined by James J. Gibson. The concept of affordance was meant to cut through the subjective-objective dichotomy of traditional psychology and philosophy, but its interpretation in HCI has often retained this dichotomy. We argue, that at least some of the misunderstanding of the concept is caused by the fact that Gibson focused mainly on the perceptual side of the concept, leaving the activity of the organism as a largely implicit precondition. We suggest that this shortcoming have significant consequences, but that they can be overcome by employing the concepts for activity and consciousness found in the Russian activity theory as a frame of reference for the concept of affordance.
- Bernstein, N. A. (1996): On Dexterity and Its Development. In: Latash, M. L. & M. T. Turvey (Eds.): Dexterity and Its Development. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah N.J.Google Scholar
- Bærentsen, K. B. (1989): Mennesker og maskiner. In: Hedegaard, M.; V. R. Hansen & S. Thyssen (red.): Et virksomt liv. Udforskning af virksomhedsteoriens praksis. s. 142-187. Aarhus Universitetsforlag, Århus.Google Scholar
- Bærentsen, K. B. (2000): Intuitive User Interfaces. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems. Vol. 12, pp. 29-60. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Costall, A. (1995): Socializing Affordances. Theory and Psychology, Vol. 5, pp. 467-481.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Costall, A. (2000): James Gibson and the Ecology of Agency. Communication & Cognition, Vol. 33 (1-2), pp. 23-33.Google Scholar
- Gibson, E. J, (2000): Where is the information for Affordances? Ecological Psychology, Vol. 12(1), pp. 53-56.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gibson, J. J. (1966): The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.Google Scholar
- Gibson, J. J. (1986): The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale.Google Scholar
- Holzkamp, K. (1973): Sinnliche Erkenntnis - Historischer Ursprung und gesellschaftliche Funktion der Wahrnehmung. Fischer Athenäum, Frankfurt M.Google Scholar
- Kaufman, S. (1996) At Home In the Universe. The Search For Laws of Complexity. Penguin, London etc.Google Scholar
- Lee, D. N. (1980): The optic flow field: the foundation of vision. Phil.Trans.R.Soc.Lond. Vol. B 290, pp. 169-179.Google Scholar
- Leont'ev, A. N. (1978): Activity. Consciousness. Personality. Prentice-Hall, N.J. (originally published 1977).Google Scholar
- Leontyev, A. N. (1981): Problems of The Development of the Mind. Moscow, Progress Publishers. (originally published 1959).Google Scholar
- Leont'ev, A. N. & A. A. Leont'ev (1975): Concerning a psychological theory of sensory cognition. Voprosy Psichologii. No. 1, pp. 3-10 (in russian).Google Scholar
- Leontiev, A. N. & T. V. Rozanova (1957): The Formation of Associative Connections: An Experimental Investigation. In: Simon, B. (ed.): Psychology in the Soviet Union. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, pp. 164-182. (originally published 1951)Google Scholar
- Luria, A. R. (1973): The Working Brain. Penguin, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
- Norman, D. A. (1988): The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books, New YorkGoogle Scholar
- Norman, D. A. (1999): Affordances, Conventions, and Design. Interactions, May issue, pp. 38-43. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stoffregen, T.A. (2000): Affordances and Events. Ecological Psychology, Vol. 12(1), pp. 1-28Google ScholarCross Ref
- Suchman, L. A. (1987): Plans and Situated Actions. The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge etc. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Turvey, M.T. & Carello, C. (1986): The Ecological Approach to Perceiving-Acting: A Pictorial Essay. Acta Psychologica, 63, pp. 133-155.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Velichkovsky, B. M. (1994): The Levels Endeavour in Psychology and Cognitive Science. In: Bertelson, P.; P. Eelen & G. d'Ydewalle (eds.): International Perspectives on Psychological Science. Vol. 1: Leading Themes. Erlabum, Hove etc., pp. 143-158.Google Scholar
- Warren, W.H. & Whang, S. (1987): Visual Guidance of Walking Through Apertures: Body-scaled Information for Affordances. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 13(3), pp. 371-383Google ScholarCross Ref
- Zinchenko, P. I. (1983): The Problem of Involuntary Memory. Soviet psychology. Vol.XXII(2), pp. 55-111. (originally published 1939)Google Scholar
Index Terms
- An activity theory approach to affordance
Recommendations
Affordances in HCI: toward a mediated action perspective
CHI '12: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsInterpretations of the concept of "affordances" in HCI are becoming increasingly diverse, extending well beyond the original Gibsonian meaning. We discuss some of the key analyses of affordances in HCI research and make three related claims. First, we ...
Affordance in interaction
ECCE '06: Proceedings of the 13th Eurpoean conference on Cognitive ergonomics: trust and control in complex socio-technical systemsThe 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 ...
Three levels of perceiving affordance: possibility, specificity, and signification levels
OzCHI '18: Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human InteractionIn this paper, a new framework of perceiving affordance, based on the ecological approach and neuroscientific findings, is proposed. Although affordance has been one of the most famous concepts in the human-computer interaction (HCI) field, it has been ...
Comments