[IxDA Discuss] Affordances in interface design

[Mark Schraad]

On Wednesday, March 07, 2007, at 10:01AM, "Bret Hekking" <bhekking at yahoo.com> wrote:

>I think what you're really talking about is the usefulness of metaphors, not
>affordances, per se. As I understand them affordances are intrinsic properties
>of objects (e.g., a button affords pushing) - whereas metaphors (in this
>context) are the kinds of clues objects give with respect to users' mental
>models.

Bret - you make a great point that these are basically metaphors. I disagree with your definition of affordances. My interpretation of Gibson's version is that they are mutually dependant upon the object and the user. They live somewhere in between and are not intrinsic to either.

Mark