Aordance

Aord redirects here. For the surname, see Aord (sur- fordances as all action possibilities latent in the enviname).
ronment, objectively measurable and independent of the
An aordance is often taken as a relation between individuals ability to recognize them, but always in relation to agents and therefore dependent on their capabilities. For instance, a set of steps which rises four feet
high does not aord the act of climbing if the actor is
a crawling infant. Gibsons is the prevalent denition in
cognitive psychology.
Aordances were further studied by Eleanor J. Gibson,
wife of James Gibson, who created her theory of perceptual learning around this concept. Eleanor Gibsons book,
An Ecological Approach to Perceptual Learning and Development explores aordances further.
Jakob von Uexkll had already discussed the concept in
the early twentieth century,[9] calling it the functional
tinting (funktionale Tnung) of organisms with respect
to stimuli.[10]

The handles on a tea set provide an obvious aordance for holding for individuals with hands.

Anderson, Yamagishi and Karavia (2002) sought to determine whether visual attention or aordance forms the
basis of the motor signals generated by many everyday
graspable objects. By examining how the properties of
an object aect an observers reaction time for judging its orientation, they provided evidence to indicate
that directed visual attention (not aordance) is responsible for the automatic generation of many motor signals
associated with the spatial characteristics of perceived
Dierent denitions of the term have developed. The
objects.[11]
original denition described all actions that are physically
possible. This was later adapted to describe action possibilities of which an actor is aware. Some dene aordance as a potential resource for some (not a particular)
2 As perceived action possibilities
organism or species of organism, and so while inviting the
possible engagement of some species, not identied with
any particular one.[5][6] The term has further evolved for In 1988, Donald Norman appropriated the term aoruse in the context of humancomputer interaction (HCI) dances in the context of humanmachine interaction to
refer to just those action possibilities that are readily perto indicate the easy discoverability of possible actions.
ceivable by an actor. Through his book The Design of
The word is used in a variety of elds: perceptual
Everyday Things,[12] this interpretation was popularized
psychology, cognitive psychology, environmental psywithin the elds of HCI and interaction design. It makes
chology, industrial design, humancomputer interaction,
the concept dependent not only on the physical capabilinteraction design, instructional design, science, technolities of an actor, but also the actors goals, plans, values,
ogy and society (STS), and articial intelligence.
beliefs, and past experiences. If an actor steps into a
room with an armchair and a softball, Gibsons original
denition of aordances allows that the actor may throw
1 As action possibilities
the chair and sit on the ball, because this is objectively
possible. Normans denition of (perceived) aordances
Psychologist James J. Gibson originally introduced the captures the likelihood that the actor will sit on the armterm in his 1977 article The Theory of Aordances[7] chair and throw the softball. Eectively, Normans aorand explored it more fully in his book The Ecological Ap- dances suggest how an object may be interacted with.
proach to Visual Perception[8] in 1979. He dened af- For example, the size and shape of a softball obviously
an object, or an environment, and an organism that affords the opportunity for that organism to perform an
action.[1][2] For example, a knob aords twisting, and
perhaps pushing, while a cord aords pulling. As a relation, an aordance exhibits the possibility of some action, and is not a property of either an organism or its
environment alone.[3][4]

t nicely in the average human hand, and its density and

texture make it perfect for throwing. The user may also
bring past experiences to bear with similar objects (baseballs, perhaps) when evaluating a new aordance.
Normans 1988 denition makes the concept of aordance relational rather than subjective or intrinsic. This
he deemed an ecological approach, which is related to
systems-theoretic approaches in the natural and social sciences. The focus on perceived aordances is much more
pertinent to practical design problems from a humanfactors approach, which may explain its widespread adoption.
Norman later explained that this restriction in meaning
of the term had been unintended, and that he would replace the term by perceived aordance in any future
revision of the book.[13][14] However, the denition from
his book has been widely adopted in HCI and interaction
design, and both meanings are now commonly used in
these elds.
The dierent interpretations of aordances, although
closely related, can be a source of confusion in writing
and conversation if the intended meaning is not made explicit and if the word is not used consistently. Even authoritative textbooks can be inconsistent in their use of
the term.[15]

False aordances

William Gaver[16] divided aordances into three categories: perceptible, hidden, and false.
A false aordance is an apparent aordance that
does not have any real function, meaning that the actor perceives nonexistent possibilities for action.[17]
A good example of a false aordance is a placebo
button.[18]
A hidden aordance indicates that there are possibilities for action, but these are not perceived by the
actor. For example, it is not apparent from looking
at a shoe that it could be used to open a wine bottle.
For an aordance to be perceptible, there is information available such that the actor perceives and
can then act upon the existing aordance.

REFERENCES

Action-specic perception
Form follows function

5 References
[1] Leo van Lier (2004). Relations. e-Study Guide for:
Handbook of Psychology, Volume 6: Developmental Psychology: Psychology, Human development. Springer. p.
4. ISBN 978-1402079047. a relationship between an
organism and the environment that signals an opportunity
for or inhibition of action See also a list of various denitions titled What are aordances, p. 91
[2] Don Norman (2013). The Design of Everyday Things (Revised and expanded ed.). Basic Books. p. 11. ISBN
978-0465050659. An aordance is a relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of
the agent that determine just how the object could possibly be used.
[3] Juval Portugali (1996). Inter-representation Networks
and Cognitive Mappings.
In Juval Portugali, ed.
The construction of cognitive maps. Springer. ISBN
9780585334851.
[4] Ulric Neisser (1989). Chapter 1; Introduction: the ecological and intellectual bases of categorization. In Ulric
Neisser, ed. Concepts and Conceptual Development: Ecological and Intellectual Factors in Categorization. Cambridge University Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780521378758.
[5] Edward S. Reed (1996). Encountering the World : Toward an Ecological Psychology. Oxford University Press.
p. 40. ISBN 9780195360936. What makes something
an aordance is that it has the right properties to support
some species behavioral processes
[6] For an extended discussion of views on aordances, see
Anthony Chemero (2011). "7.2 Aordances 1.0. Radical Embodied Cognitive Science. MIT Press. pp. 136 .
ISBN 9780262258081.
[7] James J. Gibson (1977), The Theory of Aordances. In
Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing, edited by Robert Shaw
and John Bransford, ISBN 0-470-99014-7.
[8] James J. Gibson (1979), The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, ISBN 0-89859-959-8.
[9] Uexkll, Jakob von (1980 [1920 etc.]), Kompositionslehre der Natur, edited by Thure von Uexkll, Frankfurt am
Main.

This means that, when aordances are perceptible, they

oer a direct link between perception and action, and, [10] Dorion Sagan (2010). Introduction: Umwelt after
when aordances are hidden or false, they can lead to
Uexkll. In Jakob von Uexkll, Marina von Uexkll,
mistakes and misunderstandings.
Joseph D. ONeil. A Foray Into the Worlds of Animals

See also
Usability

and Humans: With a Theory of Meaning (Joseph D O'Neil

translation of 1940 ed.). University of Minnesota Press.
p. 5. ISBN 9781452903798. Organisms in their lifeworlds recognize not only sensory inputs, but also functional tones, the use they need to make of certain stimuli
if they are to do what they need to survive.

[11] Anderson, S. J.; Yamagishi, N.; Karavia, V. (2002). Attentional processes link perception and action. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 269 (1497):
1225. doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.1998.
[12] Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, ISBN
0-465-06710-7. Originally published under the title The
Psychology of Everyday Things, often abbreviated to
POET.
[13] Donald A. Norman (1999). Aordance, Conventions and
Design. Interactions 6(3):38-43, May 1999, ACM Press.
[14] Aordance, Conventions and Design (Part 2)
[15] In HumanComputer Interaction, Preece et al. (1994, p.
6) explicitly dene perceived aordances as being a subset
of all aordances, but the meanings are intermingled later
in the same paragraph by talking about good aordance";
in Universal Principles of Design, Lidwell, Holden & Butler (2003, p. 20) rst explain that round wheels are better
suited for rolling than square ones and therefore better afford (i.e. allow) rolling, but later state that a door handle
aords (i.e. suggests) pulling, but not pushing.
[16] Gaver, William W. (1991). Technology aordances.
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems Reaching through technology
- CHI '91. p. 79. doi:10.1145/108844.108856. ISBN
0897913833.
[17] Aordances
[18] Placebo buttons, false aordances and habit-forming

Additional reading
The role of aordances in evolution and niche construction is discussed by Rob Withagen, Margot van
Wermeskerken (2010). The role of aordances in
the evolutionary process considered: A niche construction perspective. Theory and Psychology 20
(4): 489510. doi:10.1177/0959354310361405.
The role of aordances in agency is discussed
by Rob Withagen, Harjo J de Poel, Duarte
Arajo, Gert-Jam Pepping (2012). Aordances
can invite behavior:
Reconsidering the relationship between aordances and agency.
New Ideas in Psychology 30 (2): 250258.
doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.12.003.
Aordance and computation is discussed
Gibsons aorby AJ Wells (2002).
dances and Turings theory of computation. Ecological psychology 14 (3): 140180.
doi:10.1207/S15326969ECO1403_3.

7 External links
A series of slides concerning theories of vision and
(incidentally) the role of aordances and some interesting optical illusions concerning aordances
Aaron Sloman (March 12, 2014). Whats vision
for, and how does it work? From Marr (and earlier)
to Gibson and beyond. Retrieved May 22, 2014.

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Aordance Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance?oldid=629640870 Contributors: The Anome, LionKimbro, Vaughan, Pnm,

Murb:, Sbwoodside, Nickg, Greenrd, Jogloran, Wetman, Robbot, AlainV, AdamReed, ZimZalaBim, Ruakh, Enochlau, DocWatson42,
Mzajac, Rculatta, MichaelMcGun, Naive cynic, Xezbeth, Pavel Vozenilek, Abroeck, Johnkarp, Gaal, Diego Moya, Aquelajames, Kelly
Martin, Psychologesetz, Je3000, Sjakkalle, Lockley, XP1, MZMcBride, Jemcneill, Penumbra2000, Aapo Laitinen, Imnotminkus,
YurikBot, Welsh, SmackBot, Tekhnoend, Harnad, Lambiam, Robosh, Ehheh, Ofol, CmdrObot, Cydebot, Mattisse, Thijs!bot, Magioladitis, Dekimasu, Steven Walling, Emw, Prufock, Mcuringa, LittleHow, Cameron.g.brown, Roconnell2580, PaulTanenbaum, Brockle,
Forlornturtle, Larkuur, Wpmetropol, Jojalozzo, Alethe, Junling, Szalagloria, Yelsdrab, Nnemo, Brews ohare, Addbot, MrOllie, LaaknorBot,
Lightbot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Emreugur, Pinethicket, Morton Shumway, RjwilmsiBot, Stevenliuyi, Roberto the Benevolent, ChuispastonBot, Vitalii-Fedorenko, Jkwitt, Data2011, Emastroi, Jamesx12345, Daniel.glazman, , Boneraw, Srnejad, SathishDhanabalan, OMPIRE
and Anonymous: 46

8.2

Images

File:2004_MujiWanoSyokki-TeasetMug_Masahiro-Mori.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/2004_

(Mori Masahiro Design Studio,
MujiWanoSyokki-TeasetMug_Masahiro-Mori.jpg License: CC-BY-3.0 Contributors:
LLC.) Original artist:
(Mori Masahiro Design Studio, LLC.)
File:Design_portal_logo.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Design_portal_logo.jpg License: CC-BYSA-2.5 Contributors: Transferred from en.wikinews to Commons. (transferred to commons by Microchip08) Original artist: Alainr345
File:Nuvola_apps_kcmsystem.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Nuvola_apps_kcmsystem.svg License: LGPL Contributors: Own work based on Image:Nuvola apps kcmsystem.png by Alphax originally from [1] Original artist:
MesserWoland
File:Wiktionary-logo-en.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Wiktionary-logo-en.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Vector version of Image:Wiktionary-logo-en.png. Original artist: Vectorized by Fvasconcellos (talk contribs), based
on original logo tossed together by Brion Vibber

8.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0