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Human interaction with the physical world: a brief review of studies on affordances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

Khyati Priya ,
Jayesh Pillai  and
Avinash Shende
Khyati Priya*
Affiliation:
IDC School of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Jayesh Pillai
Affiliation:
IDC School of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Avinash Shende
Affiliation:
IDC School of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
*
khyatipriya@iitb.ac.in

Abstract

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Gibson used "affordance" to describe how animals perceive and interact with their environment. Since the term was coined, many studies, both theoretical as well as empirical, have been done. We conducted a review of the 56 most cited works on physical affordances to answer: (1) What methods have been used to study affordances, and how have they changed with time? (2) How has the definition of affordances evolved over time? We went through papers decade-wise and compare their key contributions. Finally, we discuss how the definition and research on affordances has evolved in the last 40 years.

Keywords

affordanceuser-centred designresearch methodologies and methods
Type
Design Theory and Research Methods
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 4: DESIGN 2024 , May 2024 , pp. 105 - 114
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2024.

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