For Week 2’s readings, both Jane Fulton Suri and Don Norman discuss the intricate relationships of individual, environment and design. In Suri’s “Thoughtless Acts”, Suri observes the subconscious interactions with our environment and surrounding objects. As Suri states, “These are actions, prompted by our relationship with the world, that seem automatic
or intuitive.” These automatic responses to daily objects or tasks are considered “thoughtless acts”. For example, some thoughtless acts I commonly encounter is whenever I use my AirPods, instead of putting them back into my case, where it can charge and be safely stored, I hang them on the top of my ear like a pencil. I do this so I have easy access to listening to music, and so I can avoid constantly taking/ putting them back into my case. This can be considered a thoughtless act, as I stray from the intended use or design of the object I interact with.
In Norman’s paper, the topic of affordances, constraints and “perceived” affordances explores the way we understand and perceive certain functions. In his paper, Norman describes affordances to be “the actionable properties between the world and an actor”; While, constraints are the limitations of these actions. However, Norman touches upon “perceived” affordances, which unlike standard affordances, are learned and not naturally formed. Similar to thoughtless acts, after reading this paper, I also began to identify certain affordances and “perceived” affordances within my daily life. For example, the iPhone touch screen is a perfect example of a perceived affordance. Although, we take for granted the easy touch technology of an iPhone screen and assume it is easily accessible, it is a perceived affordance. If you were to hand an iPhone to, for example, someone from 30 years ago, they would have no idea how to access the technology. This is because the concept and design of the touch screen is not an innate function that all humans understand, it is constrained by the timeframe it was created within.