RE: Application Principles and AT Analysi

Linda Polin (lpolin who-is-at pepperdine.edu)
Mon, 24 May 1999 12:29:33 -0800

While I don't think Norman would claim to be thinking from within a CHAT
perspective, I think his notion of "affordances" maps nicely onto the CHAT
view of tools/signs/symbols and their function in an activity/culture
system.

Affordances are features of an object that beg its use, the classic example
being the waist-high horizontal bar across the outside of the glass doors
that pretty much tells you to push. These sorts of features emerge from the
use of the object in its functional context (perhaps through refinements
and iterations) and hold meaning about its use. In that regard I think
there's an bit of conceptual overlap btwn. the two "theories."

imho,

LInda