A Primary Study on the Formal Description of Affordance for Product Design

正規化承擔特質描述語法於產品設計初探

游曉貞(Hsiao-Chen You) ； 游萬來(Man-Lai You) ； 陳國祥(Kuo-Hsiang Chen)

《設計研究》 1期 (2001/11) Pp. 1-10

https://doi.org/10.30178/SJYJ.200111.0001

摘要

知覺心理學家J. J. Gibson於廣為接受的認知理論之外，另外發展出一種生態學取向（ecological approach）的知覺心理學來解釋環境與具行為能力的生物之間互動關係的方法。生態學取向知覺心理學與認知學派理論不同之處在於－強調環境本身就能提供直接、有效的資訊讓生物了解如何與其互動。而這種事物能提供、承擔各式生物行為的本質就是所謂的「承擔特質」（affordance）。本研究將設計視為一種人造環境的創造過程，企圖以承擔特質概念解釋人造環境中產品物性對於使用者行為之影響，進而以「承擔特質」概念中主要的三個元素，動作者、物品與兩者間互動關係為基本架構，提出一描述承擔特質的方法。希望藉此增進設計師對承擔特質概念的了解，提供另一種提昇產品互動品質的思考方式。全文主要包涵兩部份：第一，介紹Gibson所提出的承擔特質概念，並對不同詮釋觀點下的承擔特質研究作一比較與分類；第二，從互動性產品設計的觀點，提出一種描述承擔特質之正規語法，並探討未來此類研究之方向與限制。

關鍵字

承擔特質 ； 生態學取向心理學 ； 正規化語法

並列摘要

The concept of affordance introduced by J. J. Gibson has received significant attention in the field of interaction design recently. This concept is attractive because it simplifies the complex relation between user and object, and more importantly, it provides a direct linkage between object attributes and user actions. It could help designer transform the intended interactions into a self-evident artifact by design. Unfortunately, due to lacking for a formal description of affordance, most current explanations of affordance are incomplete, and not sufficient for its application in design process. This study aims to develop a formal description of affordance for further application in design. In the context that design is seen as the making of artificial products or environments for human use, affordance can be interpreted as the relation between user ability and product property. From this perspective, the attributes of users, the properties of objects, and the relations between those two are the elements to form the basic structure of formalism of affordances. In this paper, a brief survey of the affordance literature and its connection to interaction design is introduced; then different perspectives on affordance are explored to uncover its potential benefits in product design; finally, a formal defintion of affordance is proposed, by describing affordance from the point of view of interaction design to facilitate its further implementation in design.

並列關鍵字

Affordance ； Ecological approach ； Formal description