What is affordance?

Affordance is a term created by the perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson to refer to the qualities of the physical world that suggest the possibility of interaction relative to the ability of an actor (person or animal) to interact. McGrenere and Ho presented three fundamental properties of an affordance as defined by Gibson:

- An affordance exists relative to the action capabilities of a particular actor.

- The existence of an affordance is independent of the actor’s ability to perceive it (emphasis added).

-An affordance does not change as the needs and goals of the actor change. [1]

For example, the affordance of a branch as ‘a nice place to sit’ are dependent on:

the qualities of the branch: how much weight it supports, how high of the ground it is, etc.; and

the capabilities of the actor: how much they weigh, ability to climb, etc.

Based on the original definition and fundamental properties, affordance, in relation to interface design, relates more to (physical) input devices: mouse, keyboard, stylus, etc. When discussing the qualities of a graphical user interface, the preferred term is perceived affordance.

Related terms:

References

[1] McGrenere, J. and W. Ho, 2000: Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concept. Graphics Interface 2000, Montreal.