Session 3
18.09.20
The Concept of Affordance in the Design Context
What is the first thought that comes to mind when you find a bench to sit on outside ? Do you questions its ability to withhold your body weight? Is it the material that makes you ponder over the level of comfort it may provide? Perhaps it is just the flatness of the bench seat that compels you to sit down upon the rusty little bench you found outside on your daily walk to the park. Whatever maybe your deciding factor you have made a choice and that is to sit down on a bench. That’s quite simple. We do it everyday. But do. we think about the design of the chair every time we come across it? Subconsciously for sure. Consciously out loud? Not quite.
As designers we design everyday objects that should ideally uplift the quality of our lives in a way such that the design becomes ‘invisible’, ultimately losing its essence along the course of action. As discussed in the previous thread, good design is invisible for all the right reasons. and hence we are compelled to think about Heidegger and his philosophical stance about tools, their design and their relation with our being. No design can exist in isolation and thus whilst designing a new product – think of the hypothetical chair you saw on your hypothetical walk – the designers need to be mindful of the people they design for. They must prescribe some physical qualities or attributes to their product to ensure the right use of the tool or product at hand.
Such qualities or attributes that determine the action a user may have to take are what we call AFFORDANCES in the design terminology. An affordance of an object helps determine whether or not a simple press of the button can turn on your TV or your phone screen. The ‘roundness’ of the button therefore becomes its affordance, i.e. it allows you to perform an action you may not need instructions for otherwise.
Today’s lecture was a detailed discussion on the idea of affordance and how the concept is a. designer’s holy grail in the the world of interaction and communications. The designers need to embrace the existing design and that which they will eventually create. By understanding the attributes of a specific design or object can help establish a clear understanding of how the design can be used over the course of time to ensure seamless interaction between the product and the users.
For a seamless interaction to occur the user must be presented with a strong affordance. The object of interaction must ‘speak’ for itself. Take the same example of the hypothetical bench and its. hard, sturdy surface and the very flatness of the seat. It offers quite a strong affordance so you don’t need to think twice about the usability of the bench itself.
However if an object is to offer a weak affordance the user may have to struggle while deciphering the right use of the said object. It doesn’t mean that the product itself is ‘bad’, it simply means that the affordance it offers is weak or poor. Think of the navigation ‘buttons’ on your mobile banking. app. If the buttons are too minute in size the user may have a difficult experience in general, resulting in a grave mishap.
Thus, as a designer one must pay close attention to such minute details in order to ensure smooth and seamless interactions between a user and the product.
