Title:	TYPES OF AFFORDANCES AND THEIR ROLE IN QUANTITATIVE UX/UI RESEARCH. A SCOPING REVIEW OF AFFORDANCES-FOCUSED LITERATURE
Author(s):	Ionut-Dorin Stanciu, Oana Teodora Cramariuc and Irina Georgiana Mocanu
ISBN:	978-989-8704-51-1
Editors:	Miguel Baptista Nunes, Pedro Isaías, Tomayess Issa and Theodora Issa
Year:	2023
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Affordances, User Experience, User Interaction, Quantitative Research, Research Designs and Methods
Type:	Full
First Page:	83
Last Page:	91
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	Human-computer interaction is one of the most prolific fields of the last decades, due to both the rapid technological developments and the increased mass availability of these developments. HCI is also a highly interdisciplinary field, which brings together researchers from engineering, computer sciences, psychology, sociology, and even fields like medicine, education, and arts and humanities, and makes use of a huge variety of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methods. One of the key constructs in technological design and in HCI is that of "affordances", introduced by the American psychologist James Gibson in the late '70s - early '80s. This construct underpins the design and development of almost all technological devices intended for human use and is central to what is nowadays known as user-centered design. However, it is exactly this complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the field that allows for a vast and sometimes worrying inconsistency in the guiding theories and research methods. Against this backdrop, and in alignment with the increased calls for reproducibility and clear research reporting, we performed a scoping review of quantitative primary research studies in UX/UI that focused on 'affordances' use and/or analysis. Our findings show a scarcity of studies that are thorough in reporting important information, such as clearly mentioning the research design, analysis methods used, measurements, procedure, and sample. Furthermore, another worrying aspect, acknowledged in previous studies, is the significant overlapping of the concept of "affordances" with that of (system/device) functionality. We hope that our review will be helpful for researchers new to the field or for those interested in searching for papers that place 'affordances' at their core.
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