What the affordances of a web site?
One of the most interesting concepts developed by Donald Norman in the context of cognitive ergonomics is to affordance.
The cognitive ergonomics studies the interaction man-machine-environment factors come into play cognitive and emotional, related to the dynamics of perception, learning, memory and problem solving skills. That are studied ways by which a user builds a mental model of the product that you are using, and creates certain expectations about its operation.
L ' affordance is a property that an object with its very form suggests how to be used. Introduced by the psychologist James Gibson, that term describes a relationship between an agent and a surrounding environment is an invitation that the environment has to be used in a certain way.
Think of a handle, or a remote control, which by their form invite to be used in a certain direction. The affordance of a handle of a door is such that we understand at a glance that the handle rests the whole hand and press down.
But think also, as an example of non-affordances, those gates and it is not clear which side should be pushed to be opened. Note that the affordance is a product of culture, not a given "natural" object. A native of Australia might not know how to use a remote control and maybe we would not know how to use a harpoon fishing Inuit fitted with a propeller but a spear and its engine are just two pieces of wood. It is no coincidence that Norman Nielsen, and have founded a company that offers services in strategies that enhance the user experience. In fact, the affordance is a key ingredient for usability, and consequently the quality of a site. Ergonomics and usability
imply a way of designing a site that user centered design, user-centered design.
In simpler words, if I create a quality website, I have made so that it is adequate for its target audience, as if it produces a remote control it must have sizes and shapes such that the hands of human beings can grasp it. In short we must ensure that objects in one site behave as their appearance suggests ( call functional objects ). The user of a website should be able to understand how to use something just looking at it ( visibility ), establishing correspondences between conceptual commands and functions ( natural mapping). Visibility
, invitations and natural functional mapping are three characters in a usable site.
Some examples.
Visibility: a blue underlined word suggests the idea of \u200b\u200bbeing in the presence of a link to another page, where the emphasis is colored purple it means that the link has already been clicked. Invitations
functional: a button '→' ('forward') suggests the action of being pressed and not to be selected.
Natural mapping: the structure of a model for conducting research suggests that you should enter your search text in a certain field and then press the 'send'.
broadened our perspective. When we navigate a website, mainly because we do seek information, and we believe that the information we seek is transmitted in a reliable manner. According Origgi the affordances of the Internet are just a mnemonic (Calls to be used as a repository of information) and a relational (internet interpret in terms of intentions, beliefs and desires), and these affordances explain the success of certain content and 'failure of other
(See http://webphilosophy.blogspot.com/2005/10/internet-come-artefatto-cognitivo.html ).
A typical case, reported by Origgi, sites that exploit both of these affordances of the internet sites of community where people with similar interests meet to discuss a certain problem sharing a database of information.
Another example of a virtual space that leverages the affordances of the Internet is both the forum . The forum is a virtual space that many sites make available to its users to exchange views on a particular topic. Messages addressed to the forum are displayed on a web page for the second sequential organization date or in a tree structure, for esmpio brings together all the answers to a given intervention.
Ultimately the web designer to build a quality site, and therefore usable, must design objects in web pages so that we send clear messages about their possible use, on their actions and their duties.
must also reflect the two main affordances of the Internet, described by Origgi: the mnemonic for the internet which invites us to use it as a repository of information, and relational, for which we expect that the information that we are in the web is communicated in a reliable form for us, satisfying and relevant, just like a human agent to which we ask information.
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