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Affordance 0:34

A 34-second explainer of Affordance, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.

The Affordance explainer. Prefer to do it yourself? Try the interactive demo.

Try the interactive Affordance demo

What this video covers

An affordance is the potential for action that arises from the relationship between a person and an object - a button affords pressing, a slider affords dragging. A signifier is the visible cue that signals the action is available: the raised edge, the underline, the drag handle. Affordances are the possibilities; signifiers are how we communicate them.

Your clicks went where the visual cues pointed, not where the function actually lived. That's affordance: we act on what things look like they do.

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