A Heterophenomenological Framework for Analyzing User Experiences with Affordances

Abstract

ABSTRACT For user experience studies, the affordance theory has been used to describe a user’s intuitive perception and action. This theory, however, has often faced problems in application due to the different viewpoints of the ecological psychology and other fields of application study. To address this issue, we adopt two strategies in this study. First, we review the existing explications of the affordance theory in ecological psychology and rectify issues that have hindered the use of concepts in the affordance theory for user experience analysis. In addressing these issues, we suggest revised formal expressions and propose a new typological system. Second, by organizing the revised formal expressions and the new typology of the affordance into a heterophenomenological frame, we suggest a research framework for user experience analysis. We present an application example of the framework for demonstration purposes. We expect that the suggested framework will enable better descriptions of various phenomena occurring in the physical, social, and self dimensions and designs of products and services.