Dear Robin
Many thanks for this. I've noticed how the discussion of affordances centres on designers having to give users more signifiers, and therefore to make affordances more visible and perceptable. I'm now thinking of how users can discover affordances in things they find, perhaps designed for other purposes that did not originally afford these new uses. I like what Don says somewhere: that designers invent new affordances; here I'm thinking of how and what helps users invent new affordances. In a sense users themselves Design.
Think say how in James March he talks about using literature to stimulate new thinking, or the logic of appropriateness (I suspect Don Quixote was not written for that), or using 'hypocritical speeches' as a technology of foolishness to stimulate new ethical thinking or at least to expose the hypocrite to his own 'ethical' rationalizations. These speeches were probably not intended for such consciousness raising, but March the user sees in these a new affordance. So the camera: besides point and shoot, what can I use it for?
I'll definitely look at semantic control behaviour. Thanks much
Jude
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hodge, Robin
Sent: Wednesday, 8 February, 2012 8:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Affordances
Jude
You mention Don Norman's literature and I cannot commend any other book higher than this for ease of meaning and an excellent entry point to the area of 'affordance'. Regarding camera/photography I would suggest that affordance also goes hand in hand with syntactic and semantic control behaviour. The graphics/motifs actually rarely 'afford' any modification of behaviour or ease of use. This would be an excellent area for research to be honest...
robin
PR Hodge MA, BA (Hons), PG Dip (Media), FAETC, MIDI
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Partnership Manager, Faculty of Arts
Programme Director Master of Design and Communication
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University of Ulster at Magee
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National Institute of Education (Singapore) http://www.nie.edu.sg
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