Meaning of affordance | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Anything that is provided or furnished by an environment to an organism dwelling within it.
   countable
2. A potential transaction or operation that is made possible by a given object or environment; especially, one that is made easily discoverable.
   countable
3. Any interactive control or component serving as a cue to the user to take some action.
   countable

Equivalents

Examples

“So an affordance cannot be measured as we measure in physics.”

“Take for instance a paperback book. It has a wide variety of affordances including conveying a narrative story, weighing down papers in a windy office, swatting houseflies, etc. While these affordances are properties of the book, whether they are available depends on the context.”

“The grab handles on the edges of this image are affordances that the user can exploit to change the size of the image.”

“Affordances provide strong clues to the operations of things. Plates are for pushing. Knobs are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. Balls are for throwing or bouncing. When affordances are taken advantage of, the user knows what to do by just looking: no pictures, label, or instruction is required.”

CEFR level