Affordances.
a photographic essay of thoughtless responses in our environments.
An “affordance” is the act of “perceiving the environment in terms of its possibilities for actions”. In other words, what objects or spaces can “afford” us. In this project, I went around campus and through my house to find these affordances and other thoughtless responses to environments.
Findings
- Our life is a “product of our environment”. We interpret, utilize, and conform to our environment much more than we may realize. Almost all of our choices are driven by some affordance in our environment.
- Social conformity tends to be the most absentminded. We may notice affordances in objects or environments, but social affordances are even more subconscious. I became more aware of my own social affordances while trying to observe others.
Personal Discoveries
- Observing affordances requires practice. The perception necessary for observing thoughtless acts and affordances is an acquired skill. As the weeks of observation went on, the more I was able to see in everyday surroundings.
- Design opportunities are in abundance. Although designing for every need you find may not be the most effective method, this observational skill of finding affordances has allowed me to see how the world is full of design opportunities.
Environmental affordances
There were two main patterns of affordances that I observed. The first is an adaptation/accommodation in response to a constraint in the environment. These affordances are typically in response to the question “what do I do with this?”. The second is an exploiting/co-opting of possibilities of the environment. These are typically in response to the question, “how could I use this?”.
Although both are thoughtless acts of affordance, the responses to the second category of affordances tend to be more innovative.
What do I do with this?
How could I use this?
Social
Within social spaces, we subconsciously adapt and conform to those around us. This is an example of a response/adaptation to cultural constraints in our environments. I will highlight two patterns of this type of conforming behavior.
1) Don’t face me
In the above 4 photos, all students are facing the same direction. When choosing a seat to take, it is a pattern to never choose a seat that directly faces someone. This is an example of a cultural constraint because it is socially accepted as tacit knowledge that being in the direct view of someone is awkward.
2) Give me space
Another common pattern is to give each person in an environment as much space as possible. Notice that in each of the following photos, all students sit as far away as possible from one another.
This is another example of conforming to a cultural constraint. There is a certain proximity/bubble around each person that is culturally accepted as invasive to cross into. Other cultures/environments may have different proximities for this constraint.
Conclusion
Both the social and environmental affordances/constraints on campus were intriguing to observe. All of these affordances signify a need of the user. Launching the design process from these observations or utilizing this observational skill in the design process is my next goal and interest.