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Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

—Steve Jobs

DDQ MON 2021-08-23

2. Affordances, Signifiers & Design Fails

2.1. Agenda

1. General Announcements

2. Activity

Table 2.1 Current Assignments

Category	Assignment	Day	Date
Term Project	Milestone 0: IRB Training	FRI	2021-08-27

2.2. Activity

2.2.1. Introduction

Duration: \(\sim\) 5 minutes

The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill. The verb to afford is found in the dictionary, the noun affordance is not. I have made it up. I mean by it something that refers to both the environment and the animal in a way that no existing term does. It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment.

—James J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1967)

anti-affordance

A relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that can result in the prevention of interaction.

design fail

A design that is low value or that destroys value.

Example

2.2.2. Breakout Groups

Duration: \(\sim\) 10 minutes

1. Quickly introduce yourselfs to each other, if you don’t already know each other.

2. Pick a group representative. This person will be responsible for posting your breakout group’s response on Piazza before breakout group work ends for this activity.

3. Find a design fail that your group likes, then help your group representative respond to the following in a followup discussion to Piazza @8.

   Important

   It should go without saying, but please keep it mostly safe for school/work.

   1. List the full names of your breakout group members in the following format:

      Group: Name1, Name2, etc.
      

   2. Include a picture of the design fail, and briefly describe the product or system (e.g., it’s a kitchen cabinet).

   3. List the following for the product or systemthe definitions provided in DOET:

      1. properties,

      2. affordances, and

      3. signifiers.

   4. What exactly failed? Be sure to frame your answer using elements from (a) and (b).

   5. As a group, look at and reply to the posts that other groups made.

2.2.3. After Breakout Groups

Duration: TBD

1. Look at some of the Piazza posts as a class.

2.2.4. After Class

1. Before 11:55PM today, individually comment on another group’s post by replying to their followup discussion in Piazza @8.

2. Start reading the Foundations module, and make sure you’re aware of current assignments and their due dates.

3. Complete the Term Project: Milestone 0: IRB Training and submit your completion certificate before FRI 06-18 @ 11:55 PM.