Affordance and Interface Design

Overview

Affordance is the term used by the areas of cognitive psychology and product/ industrial design to describe how an environment communicates and provides the capacity for a user to interact with that environment.

Donald Norman and Brenda Laurel are two writers/researchers with very different backgrounds who both became well known during the 1990s for their direct and persuasive criticism of the way computers and computer software/experiences are designed. They have both argued for a human focused approach to the craft of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). They both make the point that understanding how to best design interactive experiences using digital technology can only be accomplished by the careful study of pre-existing human factors, both biological and cultural.

Primary Reading

"Chapter 11: Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles" by Donald Norman.

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/chapter_11_turn_sig.html

"New Players, New Games" by Brenda Laurel

http://www.tauzero.com/Brenda_Laurel/Recent_Talks/NewPlayersNewGames.html

More

Brenda Laurel's gathering of expert views and case studies of the design of human-centred interactive New Media experiences. Curtin Library, in the reserve collection.

  "Design research: Methods and perspectives" The MIT Press, Massachusetts, 2003.

Brenda Laurel 's personal webpage.

http://www.tauzero.com/Brenda_Laurel/

Brenda Laurel , Computers as Theatre , Addison-Wesley (1991) ISBN 0-20155-060-1

Brenda Laurel , The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design , Addison-Wesley (1990) ISBN 0-20151-797-3

Donald Norman's webpage

http://www.jnd.org/

Norman , Donald, The Design of Everyday Things (1988, originally under the title The Psychology of Everyday Things )

Norman , Donald , Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things (2004) Basic Books, New York.