The Power and Politics of Everyday Things
Author: Jenny L. Davis
Subject: affordances; affordance; science and technology studies; STS; computer mediated communication; CMC; information communication technologies; ICT; new media; design studies; sociology of technology; politics of design; James Gibson; JJ Gibson; Donald A Norman; mechanisms and conditions framework; actor network theory; ANT; technology as materialized action; social theory; critical technology studies; critical STS
Publisher: MIT Press (2020-07-17)
9780262358897
A conceptual update of affordance theory that introduces the mechanisms and conditions framework, providing a vocabulary and critical perspective.
Technological affordances mediate between the features of a technology and the outcomes of engagement with that technology. The concept of affordances, which migrated from psychology to design with Donald Norman's influential 1988 book, The Design of Everyday Things, offers a useful analytical tool in technology studies—but, Jenny Davis argues in How Artifacts Afford, it is in need of a conceptual update. Davis provides just such an update, introducing the mechanisms and conditions framework, which offers both a vocabulary and necessary critical perspective for affordance analyses.
Technological affordances mediate between the features of a technology and the outcomes of engagement with that technology. The concept of affordances, which migrated from psychology to design with Donald Norman's influential 1988 book, The Design of Everyday Things, offers a useful analytical tool in technology studies—but, Jenny Davis argues in How Artifacts Afford, it is in need of a conceptual update. Davis provides just such an update, introducing the mechanisms and conditions framework, which offers both a vocabulary and necessary critical perspective for affordance analyses.