7. People See Cues That Tell Them What To Do With An Object

Objects are able to communicate their function and usability based on their design. Some ways that is communicated is by: Size Shape Color Orientation

Objects can talk

These cues given to you by the objects are called Affordances or action possibilities You also have Perceived Affordances which is: How easily an object’s perceived uses and intentions are, this relates to objects or tools both in real life or on the computer screen.

Bad Affordances

Incorrect+Afforance (binary/octet-stream)

If you are the one designing the environment for the task, make sure that the objects in the environment are easy to see, easy to find, and have clear affordances.   The image on the right is considered Incorrect Affordances, the design of the door handle makes you think it should be pulled open but the wording on the handle says push. 

When designing for a website think about the affordances that would help people understand how you want them to interact with the space or button shown on screen.  Cues like a shadow on a button can hint that maybe the button needs to be pressed down, such as:

Button+Cues (binary/octet-stream)

Caption: :

Online UI

Hover+Over+Cue (binary/octet-stream)

Hyperlinks are a common affordance that can be often overlooked. Many know that blue text that is underlined is a sign of a hyperlink, a link to another page or a file. Lately those cues have been removed with things like hover-over features that inform users about a clickable space when the mouse is hovering over that area. This might work well on PC but when viewing a site on a tablet or phone the user loses out on the experience and might be unaware that what they are about to click on will be a link.