affordance

American  

[uh-fawr-duhns] / əˈfɔr dəns /

noun

1. a feature of an object or environment that prompts or promotes a specific use or interaction, especially one easily perceivable to the user, as a doorknob.

   The indentations on a bar of chocolate are an affordance that makes use of our common knowledge that the thinnest parts of something are the most breakable.

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Etymology

Origin of affordance

First recorded in 1875–80 in the sense “amount one can afford to pay”; current sense dates from 1965–70; afford ( def. ) + -ance ( def. )

Example Sentences

If one believed that the star-spangled banner flapped “o’er the land of the free,” then protest during its veneration – not against it, as was deliberately misconstrued – is precisely the affordance that the ritual symbolizes.

From Salon

This is what scholars term an “affordance” of the medium.

From Slate

“More technology leads to more user affordance, leads to better expressivity for the user, and will demand more of us, technically.”

From The Verge

But there’s a clever little affordance built into that strange bar.

From The Verge

“We don’t want you to have to learn a new affordance,” says Erika Trautman, director, Google Workspace.

From The Verge