A Comparison of Affordance Concepts and Product Semantics

Recent years, Gibson's affordance concept has drawn many attentions in the field of human-computer interface and product design. However, the development of affordance concept in design practice is by far not yet matured, and the differentiation between affordance and symbolic meaning of designed artifacts is not clear. As a result, that wrongly exercising the techniques of "Product Semantics" while implementation of affordance concept is meant is often found in design field. Such confusion not only can hinder the development of ecological approach in design research, but also limit the potential application of affordance concept as well. In this study, a literature survey was conducted to briefly review the development of affordance concept in design fields; and then a comparison was made to clarify advocacy as well as arguments proclaimed by these two popular concepts in product design, which were originally rooted from different theoretical background. At the end, directions for the application of affordance concept in product design or interface design were also