By reducing the possible applications of the device to a single use, it clarified what the device was for. The technical design term for this is an ‘affordance’, a word that deserves to be more widely known. As Don Norman observes: ‘The term affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. [. . .] Affordances provide strong clues to the operations of things. Plates are for pushing. Knobs are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. Balls are for throwing or bouncing.
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