Sensory Affordances Research Articles

The Vitalistic Ecology of Death: An Autoethnographic Journey Through Bereavement and Loss

With this autoethnography, it is my intention to explore experiences of bereavement and loss through the diffractive lenses of cultural intra-actions with literary texts, narratives, and sensory affordances. Bringing my own biographic experience of grief into these pages allows me, as a researcher, to make sense of death and its rituals, fundamental for healing purposes. I wonder: What does the affective materiality of bereaving do? My lived experience helps me to connect empathically and compassionately to events by looking at how society went through the impossibility of delivering care to the dead and their families during COVID-19 lockdowns and by questioning the “crisis of care.” To conclude, I reflect on how autoethnography can be a sensemaking process, leading to healing, opening to reflexivity, and reaching out to socially relevant questions about practices and ethics of care.

Sensory Responsive Environments: A Qualitative Study on Perceived Relationships between Outdoor Built Environments and Sensory Sensitivities

This qualitative study explored the perceived relationships between outdoor built environments and sensory sensitivities, focusing on autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who had lived experience with these focal groups. Through thematic analysis of their narratives, the study uncovered patterns highlighting the perceived relationships between designed landscapes and sensory sensitivities in neurodivergent individuals, encompassing both heightened sensitivity (hypersensitivity) and reduced sensitivity (hyposensitivity). Emergent themes included individual and personal factors, sensory affordances, the benefits of outdoor environments, ambient environmental factors, materiality, spatial design, navigating environments, pedestrian-centric transportation, sensorimotor movement, safety, refuge, human settlement types, social environments, and accessibility plus inclusion. Subthematic patterns within these larger thematic categories were also identified. Study participants revealed significant sensory barriers and sensorially supportive elements of designed outdoor environments, along with promising design interventions. The findings unveil the advantages of designing multi-sensory landscapes tailored to atypical sensory needs, emphasizing the importance of fostering inclusion by designing landscapes that reflect the communities they serve. This concept is encapsulated in the development of the Sensory Responsive Environments Framework (SREF), the emergent theoretical framework of this study.

어린이의 어포던스를 위한 교육앱의 UI 디자인 제안

In the era of intelligent information, various smart electronics have become a part of our lives. In the field of education, online education is becoming popular to fill the gap in educational fields such as schools. This study aims to analyze the UI design of educational apps for children's affordance and provide alternatives. To this end, an analysis framework centered on cognitive affordance, physical affordance, sensory affordance, and functional affordance was used among Harson's affordance theories. we organize the three main elements of app interface design: interface layout, icons/button, and color, and combine affordance theory with interface design to analyze the children's art education app interface. Through these improvements, it is expected that children will be able to use educational apps better and adapt to non-face-to-face classes.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Earthquake Early Warning Message in China: An Affordance Perspective Using Immersive Virtual Reality

The early earthquake warning (EEW) system is essential for mitigating the effects of seismic incidents. However, in China, the design of EEW messages has not received much attention. This study employs affordance theory to examine the effectiveness of the EEW message generated by the Institute of Care-Life (ICL) in China, specifically by investigating four aspects of affordances: functional, cognitive, sensory, and emotional affordance. With 68 participants, we conducted an immersive virtual reality experiment. The results revealed that the ICL EEW message has a strong emotional affordance but inadequate functional, cognitive, and sensory affordance. These data provide recommendations for enhancing EEW messages, which could result in better interaction during earthquakes in China. This study investigated the viability of immersive virtual reality as a research tool for EEW. It increases understanding of the elements that determine the effectiveness of EEW communications, leading to better preparedness and response measures, reducing the impact of earthquakes and saving lives and property.

메타버스 전시환경내 알파세대를 위한 어포던스 요소에 관한 연구

Due to the global spread of the COVID-19 virus, virtual exhibitions based on untact have significantly increased in museums and art galleries. In order for the alpha generation as a new consumers to use metaverse exhibitions smoothly and effectively, adequate affordances based on behavior guidance should be provided in metaverse exhibition spaces, but research on this topic is lacking. In this study, all national museums and public art galleries in Korea were surveyed, and each affordances was evaluated based on the analysis conditions for the alpha generation extracted through prior research according to the concept of affordances by Hartson. As a result, while functional affordances were mostly met in virtual exhibitions, there were some limitations in physical and sensory affordances that could hinder the smooth use of metaverse exhibitions by the alpha generation, especially considering the lack of supply compared to demand. In addition, limitations were found due to the fact that it was conducted on a single medium. This study is significant in that it applies affordances to metaverse exhibition environments from the perspective of the alpha generation and proposes behavior guidance that they can use smoothly.

Melting the Psychological Boundary: How Interactive and Sensory Affordance Influence Users’ Adoption of Digital Heritage Service

As a result of the post-pandemic situation, enhancing digital heritage services has become one of the key issues for the recovery of tourism. Disruptive innovation in human–computer interaction technology has brought new opportunities for digitalization and intelligent transformation in the contemporary cultural tourism industry. Existing research on the adoption behavior of digital heritage services primarily focuses on users’ assessments of behavior results. There is a considerable gap in research about the interaction and value co-creation between users and digital intelligence services and users’ cognitive construction logic of digital heritage services. Following reciprocal determinism, we propose a conceptual model to deconstruct the detailed transmission path of interactive affordance and sensory affordance to digital heritage adoption. In Study 1, a lab experiment in an AI-assisted smart screen digital heritage service context revealed that interactive affordance and user adoption of digital heritage services were partially mediated by psychological distance. Findings from a between-subject online experiment in Study 2 confirmed that embodied cognition and psychological distance play a parallel intermediary role in the impact of sensory affordance on adoption. In Study 3, a lab experiment in a VR-based digital museum context further verified that information overload moderates the influence of embodied cognition on psychological distance. This research reveals the deep-bounded, rational decision-making logic of digital heritage service adoption and provides significant practical enlightenment for the optimization of the affordance experience.

어포던스 이론을 고려한 졸음쉼터 구간별 구성요소의 시설 배치계획에 관한 연구 - 경부 고속도로를 중심으로 -

The main purpose of highways is to allow rapid passage of connections between regions, and although transportation demand has increased as it greatly contributed to high economic growth, it is a difficult problem to be solved in modern society, deepening the problem of population decline due to the death of many drivers. since the cost invested for infrastructure construction is concentrated only on adding facilities at once, the quality of service that users actually feel is low, so it can be said that the environment in which sensory, physical, cognitive and functional aspects are applied is very insufficient. Therefore, this study tried to derive the characteristics of each affordance type and the linkage between the facilities of the rest areas through previous studies and literature review of the rest areas. After dividing the section into three sections, the entry section, the parking section, and the exit section, the status of facilities and expression characteristics of each section were analyzed. As a result of the study, the sensory affordance type was included the highest in the entry part, and the functional affordance was the highest in the parking part and exit part. It was determined that the layout plan should be properly implemented. Finally, this study has significance in suggesting standards that can be applied to future highway rest area plans by studying environmental improvement and improvement plans for rest areas.

The Sound of a Door

In this article, ‘The sound of a door’, Julie Rose Bower reflects on her sound design for Feeling Thing – a film with disability-inclusive dance company Candoco and Jo Bannon. Through this project she firstly expands an existing audio-visual practice in the online field of ASMR and secondly explores how inclusive design in audio-visual media may work across sensory difference through a sensibility grounded in touch. The tactile sensibility of her native audio approach explores the sensory affordances of proximity, the concept of sync as a form of touch between sound and image, and the transitional resonances that sound through persons, objects and spaces. Her non-traditional approach to capturing sound and its aesthetic results are outlined such as contact miking ceilings and floors, objects and walls to interpolate the sound design at the point that it materialises directly through the movement of the dancers. This documentary sonic method is reminiscent of the touch-heavy aesthetic of ASMR video performance work. As a visually impaired artist director Bannon explores an interest in ASMR as a sonic treatment of themes of tactility in relation to disabled experience. Her choreographic choice to feature non-verbal expression – such as a deaf dancer's use of sign language – alongside the embodied knowledge of improvised play with objects proposes a phenomenology in which disabled people respond to everyday objects in a manner that is not instrumentalised and mechanical but rather more like a reciprocal intimate relationship. Bower's sound design therefore plays with the gustatory aspects of contact and cues sensation through aurally fulfilling sensuous, ergonomic promises set up by moving images. Feeling Thing, a piece set in different spaces within a single house, presents a doorway between the senses and marks a development towards inclusive practice in ASMR sound design work.

‘Unusual ingredients’: Developing a cross-domain model for multisensory artistic practice linking food and music

This article explores linkages between sensory experiences of food and music in light of recent research from gastrophysics, 4E cognition (i.e. embodied, embedded, extended and enactive) and ecological perception theory. Drawing on these research disciplines, this article outlines a model for multisensory artistic practice, and a taxonomy of cross-domain creative strategies, based on the identification of sensory affordances between the domains of food and music. Food objects are shown to ‘afford’ cross-domain interrelationships with sound stimuli based on our capacity to sense their material characteristics, and to make sense of them through prior experience and contextual association. We propose that multisensory artistic works can themselves afford extended forms of sensory awareness by synthesizing and mediating stimuli across the selected domains, in order to form novel, or unexpected sensory linkages. These ideas are explored with reference to an ongoing artistic research project entitled ‘Unusual ingredients’, creating new music to complement and enhance the characteristics of selected food.

Effect of the Affordances of the FM New Media Communication Interface Design for Smartphones.

Smartphone equipment has promoted the widespread use of new media communication, and users have changed from being passive to actively receiving information. This has changed people’s lifestyles, and has enriched the convenience and entertainment value of knowledge acquisition. However, the new media communication systems can be too complex, and the interface design for users to interact with the new media may not be sufficiently intuitive, which causes interface usability problems. Therefore, this research study focuses on the concept of affordance and the impact of user perception pertinent to smartphone applications on frequency modulation (FM) new media interface design. The experiment is a between-subjects design using one-way ANOVA to examine three different operation modes, namely the Litchi, Himalayas and Archimedes types. The experimental data were obtained through task performance and subjective evaluation. The results indicate that: (1) Visual information presentation methods, such as viewing and deleting, affect user perception. The three operating modes revealed significant differences, with the Himalayas type taking the least amount of task performance time. (2) There were significant differences among the different operation modes, with the Himalayas type the best in terms of the users’ subjective evaluation. (3) The overall analysis of task performance and satisfaction consistently showed that the Himalayas type was better than the Litchi and Archimedes types in all aspects. (4) Smartphone user interface applications provide users with cognitive support, objects, functions, and sensory affordance, which enhance the user’s interactive experience of FM new media.

실감형 관광콘텐츠 서비스 확산모형에 대한 연구

The purpose of this study was to study the relationship between affordance, acceptance factor, and diffusion intention of realistic tourism contents service. <BR> Affordance was classified into cognitive affordance, physical affordance, and sensory affordance based on the classification by Hartson(2003).<BR> In particular, it was analyzed that cognitive and sensory affordances have a significant influence on the acceptance factors of the realistic tourism content service. On the other hand, it was analyzed that there was no significant influence relationship for physical affordance.<BR> In addition, it was analyzed that the acceptance factor of the realistic tourism content service had a significant influence on the intention to spread. <BR> This study has academic significance in that it has identified the factors for stably spreading newly emerging information technologies.

The effect of technical installations on evacuation performance in urban road tunnel fires

Tunnels are separated from the ground by structural linings, and are enclosed and unfamiliar for occupants. In tunnel fires, occupants are faced with a dangerous environment and they need to evacuate. Conveying and obtaining information about the evacuation is the key issue for evacuees. Since tunnels typically have low lighting and little connection outside the tunnel, technical installations are the only approach to deliver information to occupants in order to guide their fast and safe evacuation. This is particularly an issue for urban road tunnels with large occupants’ flow in a large underground space. The present study explores the effect and role of technical installations (alarms, information signs, and lighting) on people’s evacuation performance in urban tunnel fires, through field experiments, questionnaires and interviews. Theory of affordance (sensory affordance, cognitive affordance and functional affordance) is taken into consideration and provides an integral evaluation for technical installations. Technical installations are useful in helping occupants notice the emergency, finding exits and guiding path, and information signs are regarded as the most powerful among those three. Besides, this experiment points out some side effect from alarms and ambiguity of signs which will result in serious consequence potentially. This study leads to guidance on improvement of technical installations on evacuation planning and procedures on urban road tunnels.

Application of Affordance Factors for User-Centered Smart Homes: A Case Study Approach

Smart homes improve quality of life by providing various services based on information and communication technologies. However, smart home systems are complicated and user interfaces for the interaction between smart home and user are often not user-friendly, causing potential difficulties and inconvenience for the user. Therefore, in order for smart homes to become user-centered, usability needs to be improved. This study aims to present guidelines for improving the usability of smart homes based on the concept of affordance, which is highly meaningful in user-centered design. To do this, firstly, the affordance factors that could be applied to improve the usability of active devices and user interfaces in smart homes were extracted, secondly, a case study was conducted to analyze the application of affordance factors, focusing on active devices (e.g., control devices and smart appliances) and user interfaces that directly interact with users in smart homes. Lastly, guidelines on the application of affordance factors were presented by combining case analysis results with relevant guidelines. Active devices and user interfaces should provide users with appropriate cognitive, physical, functional, and sensory affordances so that users can use the smart home services easily and conveniently.

사물인터넷(IoT) 애플리케이션 사용성 향상을 위한 감각적 경험 기반 어포던스 디자인 연구

사물인터넷(IoT)은 현대인들에게 가장 보편화되어있는 스마트 폰과 애플리케이션 결합을 통해 사용자들에게 편리한 서비스를 제공하지만, 빠르게 변화하는 디지털 시스템에 익숙지 않은 사용자에게는 오히려 장애물로 작용하는 문제점이 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위한 해결방안으로 사물인터넷 애플리케이션 사용성 향상을 위한 감각적 경험 기반 어포던스 디자인 연구를 진행하였다. 1차적으로 사물인터넷 애플리케이션, 감각적 경험, 어포던스 디자인의 각 개념과 이론을 고찰하였으며, 선행연구를 통해 감각적 경험 요소와 어포던스 디자인 요소를 살펴보고 감각적 경험 기반 어포던스 디자인 요소를 도출하였다. 감각적 경험 기반 어포던스 디자인 요소로는 감각적 요소, 물리적 요소, 기능적 요소가 있으며, 세부분석 요소는 감각적 요소에는 색상, 그래픽, 레이아웃이 있으며, 물리적 요소에는 아이콘, 버튼, 기능적 요소에는 메뉴바, 제한성, 피드백으로 도출된 내용을 바탕으로 사례분석 모형을 구성하고, 구글 플레이, 앱 스토어의 유·무료 상위 애플리케이션 차트 100에서 사물인터넷을 포함한 사례 총 5개의 사물인터넷 애플리케이션을 선별하여 분석하였다. 분석결과 감각적 요소의 세부분석 요소인 ‘색상’, ‘그래픽’, ‘레이아웃’과 물리적 요소의 세부분석 요소인 ‘아이콘’, ‘버튼’은 모든 사례에서 공통적으로 나타나고 있었다. 기능적 요소의 세부분석 요소인 ‘메뉴 바’ 또한 모든 사례에서 공통적으로 나타고 있었으며, ‘제한성’, ‘피드백’은 2가지 사례에서만 나타났다. 따라서 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 기능적 요인이 부족함을 인지할 수 있었으며, 사용자의 만족감과 편리함을 극대화하기 위해 감각적 경험 기반 어포던스 디자인 요소인 감각적, 물리적, 기능적 특성이 적절하게 적용된 사물인터넷 애플리케이션 연구가 지속되어야 한다.

Creating and Testing a Sensory Well–Being Hub for Adolescents with Developmental Disabilities

While multisensory environments (or sensory rooms) are gaining traction in the learning environments, few studies have assessed the comparative effectiveness of specific elements and the link to individuals’ unique sensory needs. This study describes the creation and evaluation of a sensory well–being hub for diverse learners with developmental disabilities and distinct sensory profiles in a Chicago public high school. The sensory well–being hub is a simple and adaptable freestanding structure with various sensory affordances, supporting a wide range of atypical sensory processing in neurodiverse individuals. Data were collected during one academic year using surveys, focus groups, field observations, sensor data, log–in sheets, and student records. Results show that the hub was used for both scheduled (preventive) visits and unscheduled (spontaneously needed) ones. The most visited elements in the hub were a beanbag with weighted blanket, sensory cocoon with tensile fabric and a media wall, and a fidget wall with various components. The sensory affordances most often sought by users were compression, quietness, tactility, and proprioception. Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) differed from those without ASD in the ways they used sensory intervention even though the two groups were equivalent in sensory profiles (in thresholds for registration and active–to–passive response to stimuli). Based on the study findings, design suggestions were included to inform sensory hub design in other learning environments.

READING THE TEMPLE OF NABU AS A CODED SENSORY EXPERIENCE

Archaeological evidence alongside textual sources allow for a deep reading of the meaningful encounters ancient peoples had with their built environments and the ways in which these spaces were connected to cultural values and priorities. This paper argues that the sensory affordances of the first-millenniumb.c. temples of Nabu, the god of wisdom and writing, manifested the exclusive, specialised knowledge that was associated with this god in a manner that differentiated these built environments within the active, sensory landscape of the Neo-Assyrian royal citadel. This potential of the Nabu temples is best shown in the most well-preserved examples at the capital cities of Kalḫu (modern Nimrud) and Dur-Šarrukin (modern Khorsabad). These two temples of Nabu have the same combination of architectural features that produced this sensory experience, despite being in different cities and despite having different spatial layouts. These features include: (1) a sense of emphatic placement of the temples on the royal citadels and distinctive exterior features; (2) an indirect route towards the cult rooms of Nabu that passed through multiple courtyards, passage-chambers, and doorways with remarkable architectural programmes; (3) andakītu-suites, which were associated with the Assyrianakītu-festival andadê-ceremony. The appreciation of knowledge and of experts (Akk.ummânu) materialised in these built environments expresses developments in royal ideology and the preferences of Neo-Assyrian kings, in particular during the eighth and seventh centuriesb.c. This examination of the temples of Nabu demonstrates the ways in which a sensory-oriented approach adds a unique perspective to previous archaeological and textual studies, as well as insight into the relationship between cultural and ideological values and complex sensory landscapes of past societies.

Understanding women’s mobile phone use in rural Kenya: An affordance-based approach

Increases in mobile phone ownership and Internet access throughout Africa continue to motivate initiatives to use information and communication technologies (ICTs)—in particular, mobile phones—to address long-standing socioeconomic problems in the “developing world.” While it is generally recognized that mobile phones may help to address these problems by providing pertinent information, less widely known is exactly how (and if) a handset’s human–computer interface—that is, its software and hardware design—supports this form of communication. The concept of “affordances” has long been used to answer such questions. In this paper, we use Hartson’s definition of affordances to qualitatively investigate rural Kenyan women’s interactions with their mobile phones. Our detailed analysis provides empirically grounded answers to questions about the cognitive, physical, and sensory affordances of handsets used in our field sites and how they support and/or constrain mobile communication. We then discuss the implications of our findings: in particular, how this affordance-based approach draws attention to mobile phones’ design features and to the context in which they and their users are embedded—a focus which suggests new design and research opportunities in mobile communication.

디지털미디어 전시환경에서의 어포던스디자인 요소별 선호에 관한 연구

Recently, as human-centered design and humanization of space accelerates, the concept of physical space is changing to user-centered space. In particular, in the case of exhibition space to utilize digital media, visitors' actively experiencing exhibits and participating exhibition are regarded as an important factor, thus affordance design serves as a crucial factor to afford satisfaction with exhibition space to the visitors. Accordingly, the study is to understand the concept of the affordance and the digital media exhibition environment and to analyze the preference for each affordance design factor in the digital exhibition environment. The survey is conducted to people in the twenties who inhabit Seoul and the metropolitan area, familiar with the digital media. The results of the survey show that the most important role of the digital media in the exhibition environment is to create the atmosphere for concentration and complexity is the most preferable among interactivity, network ability and complexity, the feature of the digital media. Additionally, the results reveal that cognitive affordance presenting the feature of design to help the user when he/she want to know something is the most preferable among sensory affordance, physical affordance, cognitive affordance and functional affordance and as the time exposed to the digital media increases the importance of the affordance design is high. As the digital environment is common now in many fields, it will be regarded as a crucial factor to the visitors of an exhibit hall from now on whether affordance design is used.

Multisensory Imaginings: An Audionarratological Analysis of Philip Roth's NovelIndignationand its German Radio Play AdaptationEmpörung

This article analyses the German radio play adaptation of Philip Roth's novel Indignation (Empörung, 2010) from an audionarratological perspective and shows how both the book and the radio play offer potential for multisensory experiences on the part of readers and radio audiences. The article furthermore explores how the two media differ in their semiotic and sensory affordances and possibilities. It is argued that aural signs and signals predetermine certain aspects of the storyworld in the radio play: for example, characters' and the narrator's voices, soundscapes, but also ambient sound and music. Due to its focus on the aural channel, radio drama calls on audiences' imagination in distinct ways, while also complicating narratological concepts. The ‘transcriptivity’ from written to spoken text that is inherent in the transposition of novel into radio play accounts for the fact that the radio play also adds new multisensory and interpretive dimensions to its pre-text. It therefore has to be considered in its own right, as an artistic form appealing to its audiences through its own sensory channels.

The influence of affordances on user preferences for multimedia language learning applications

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the influence of sensory and cognitive affordances on the user experience of mobile devices for multimedia language learning applications. A primarily audio-based language learning application – ‘Vowel Trainer’, was chosen against a comparison, text and picture-based language learning application – ‘Learn English for Taxi Drivers’. Impressions of the two applications were assessed on two different devices that have virtually the same interface and identical sound output (when headphones are used), but differ in physical size: the iPhone and the iPad. A mixed design was chosen, with native language as a group factor and device type (iPad vs. iPhone) and language application type (audio vs. video) as within groups factors. Assessments of sensory and cognitive affordances were made, along with measurement of learner preferences of each application. Data from 41 participants (21 native English speakers, 20 non-native English speakers) were analysed, revealing device differences in both audio and visual subjective quality ratings, despite only visual quality being affected by the device's physical limitations. We suggest that sensory affordances (indexed by subjective quality) are not simply a function of physical limitations, but are heavily influenced by context. The implications for developing design guidelines for language learning and other multimedia applications are discussed.