Text Tools for Cyborgs
James J. Gibson "The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill" The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghton Mifflin, 1979
Go ahead and press a button...
Are these buttons affordances?
Is this box an affordance?
Is this picture an affordance?
The art of making affordances
"About ten years ago, most push buttons went '3D'. Using shades of grey, they appear to pop out of the screen. This is not just to look cool: it's important because 3D buttons afford pushing. They look like they stick out and they look like the way to operate them is by clicking on them. Unfortunately, many web sites these days (unaware of the value of affordances) would rather have buttons that look cool rather than buttons which look pushable; as a result, you sometimes have to hunt around to figure out where to click...The 'Go' and 'Login' buttons pop out and look like you can click on them. The Site Map and Help buttons don't look so clickable, in fact, they look exactly like the QUOTES label which isn't clickable."
User Interface Design for Programmers, Chapter 4: Affordances and Metaphors By Joel Spolsky
About four years ago, many windows started sprouting three little ridges on the bottom right corner which look like a grip. It looks like the kind of thing somebody would put on a slide switch to increase the friction. It affords dragging. It just begs to be dragged to stretch the window.
User Interface Design for Programmers, Chapter 4: Affordances and Metaphors By Joel Spolsky
The Java look and feel is the default interface for applications built with the JFC. Three distinctive visual elements are the hallmarks of the Java look and feel components: the flush 3D style, the drag texture, and the color model. The clean, modern appearance reduces the visual noise associated with beveled edges. A textured pattern, used throughout the Java look and feel, indicates items that users can drag. Such an indication cues cross-platform users in a reliable way.
Java Look and Feel GuideLines
"The controls that appear in Microsoft Windows XP have a new, futuristic look."
"By naming the new release Windows XP, Microsoft makes it clear that the main focus area for this product is the user’s eXPerience. The increased speed and efficiency of the operating system are further enhanced by the new visual design. Microsoft uses adjectives such as “fun”, “fresh” and “desirable” to describe the new look. And never before has the visual design of an operating system created such excitement. We believe that this is a design with staying power."
Microsoft Corporation
The Engineering of Affordances
A major software development tool like Visual Studio.NET features an automatic "control" that permits anyone to make a pulldown menu, i.e., a structured set of affordances:
Reading Tools for Cyborgs - An Example
Audit of Reading Tools - An Example
Audit of reading tools at http://jws-edcv.wiley.com/college/bcs/redesign/instructor/0,,_0471249661_BKS_1562____,00.html
You need help with technical problems and maybe you need to contact some folks at John Wiley
You want to go some other place
How to use this Tavani web page
You want to look into a chapter of the book
You want to visit related resources to this book
You need related Wiley information such as copyright information
More Examples of Reading Tools
The New York Times
To do: Investigate reading tools.