Affordances

A crucial part of human learning is understanding how to interact with the environment. Designers of objects can make this easier for us. An affordance is a property or feature of an object that hints what we can do with the object.

• If a cord has a button on it, you push it. If a rope hangs from a lamp, you pull it.
• If the door has a knob, you turn it. If it has a handle, you press it down. If it has a metal plate and no handle, you just push the door.
• If a word in an article is blue, you can click on it and be taken to a different page.

When you take advantage of affordances, people know what to do. No instructions needed. The less you need to explain, the better the design.

• Wikipedia