Hi Don,
If you have time on your hands, this is the time to introduce a rival word or phrase for affordance. Might be easier to comprehend by English language speakers and easier to translate in other languages.
By the way, I have attached an old paper of Environment and Behavior Studies (EBS) scholar Powell Lawton. Some people know him as a psychologist, others as gerontologist. The paper very neatly discloses the secrets of affordability, although this is not its main objective. In EBS, the concept of affordance is used very pragmatically and most often in the domain of environments for older people.
Best wishes,
Lubomir
________________________________
From: PhD-Design <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of carolina <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2020 6:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: On the translation of the word "affordance."
Just starting with the translation of the book’s name I am not sure if we should look into particular words. The title “La psicología de los objects cotidianos” does not translate well into the book’s title in my opinion. Why not use the word “diseño” instead…
Anyway, I would agree better with “prestación” for affordance, than “posibilidades”, which is a less specific word.
— · — · — · —
Carolina Short
The University of Waikato
[log in to unmask]
> On 25/08/2020, at 4:44 AM, Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I thought the easy way to answer the question of translation of
> "affordance" would be to look at the various translations of my books.
>
> Hmm. I can't find the Spanish edition of Design of Everyday Things in my
> pile, but the Spanish edition of the invisible computer (El Ordenadoir
> Invisible) translate by Alejandro Jockl (from Spain) uses the word
> "posibilades." In English, that would be "possibilities," which is not a
> bad translation of the noun. Except that we also use the term as a verb to
> discuss what activities something affords.
>
> I don't have a digital version of the book, so I photographed the
> relevant passage (too long for me to retype, given my limited skills in
> Spanish -- lo siento, pero yo entiendo muy poco). but here is the
> photograph.
>
> (I am also aware that some of you will see the photo and others will have
> mail systems that do not allow it).
>
> [image: Spanish affordance.jpg]
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 22, 2020 at 8:30 PM Daniel Salamanca <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone.
>> I have a very simple question for my Spanish speakers colleagues:
>> How do you translate “agency" and “affordances”
>> I want to stop using the english term but I haven’t found the exact word
>> in Spanish.
>>
>>
>
>
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