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Proceedings ArticleDOI

An activity theory approach to affordance

TLDR
It is argued, that at least some of the misunderstanding of the concept of affordance is caused by the fact that Gibson focused mainly on the perceptual side of the idea, leaving the activity of the organism as a largely implicit precondition.
Abstract
The concept of affordance was introduced to the field of HCI as a means to enhance the understandability and usability of artifacts and especially their user interface. The results have however not been entirely convincing. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the concept of affordance coined by James J. Gibson. The concept of affordance was meant to cut through the subjective-objective dichotomy of traditional psychology and philosophy, but its interpretation in HCI has often retained this dichotomy. We argue, that at least some of the misunderstanding of the concept is caused by the fact that Gibson focused mainly on the perceptual side of the concept, leaving the activity of the organism as a largely implicit precondition. We suggest that this shortcoming have significant consequences, but that they can be overcome by employing the concepts for activity and consciousness found in the Russian activity theory as a frame of reference for the concept of affordance.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Why break the habit of a lifetime? rethinking the roles of intention, habit, and emotion in continuing information technology use

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the theoretical underpinnings of IS research on continuing IT use and call for empirical research that directly compares and contrasts the consensus theory of continued IT use with rival theories that place much greater emphasis on unplanned and unreasoned action.
BookDOI

HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks: Toward a Multidisciplinary Science

TL;DR: A thorough pedagogical survey of the multidisciplinary science of human-computer interaction can be found in this paper, where 14 different successful research approaches in HCI are compared in a common format.
Journal ArticleDOI

The reification of metaphor as a design tool

TL;DR: The history of ideas behind user-interface (UI) metaphor is investigated, not only technical developments, but also less familiar perspectives from education, philosophy, and the sociology of science.
Proceedings ArticleDOI

Affordances in HCI: toward a mediated action perspective

TL;DR: It is held that the Gibsonian concept of affordances, conceptualized as interaction between animals and their environments, provides some important insights, but is, in the end, of limited relevance to HCI research.
Journal ArticleDOI

Social media affordances: Enabling customer engagement

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify three distinctive social media affordances for customer engagement in tourism: persistent engagement, customized engagement, and triggered engagement and extend prior research on customer engagement by examining the process of recognition (proprioception, exteroception and coperception).
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication

TL;DR: This paper presents a meta-modelling architecture for human-machine communication that automates the very labor-intensive and therefore time-heavy and therefore expensive and expensive process of designing and implementing communication systems.
Journal ArticleDOI

The psychology of everyday things

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure our which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door.
Book

The Working Brain