THE AFFORDANCE CONCEPT IN USER-COMPUTER INTERACTION

Abstract

In the context of graphic user interface design, the affordance concept remains undeveloped and requires further investigation. This study explored whether, according to the affordance concept, the interaction between users and virtual buttons corresponds to the relationship between animals and their surroundings. This study used graphic user interfaces with three types of virtual button as test samples and observed users to determine whether they could intuitively perceive affordances and make practical decisions about operability. The results show that the users could perceive affordances for operability presented by the virtual buttons, and could intuitively understand which operations were appropriate based on the size of each button. These results contend that the applicability of the affordance concept to GUI design is appropriate and that further research on the concept of affordance in human-computer interaction is necessary.