The concept of affordance in website design is common. While the term itself might escape us for a moment, the idea of affordance will always be at the forefront of a good web designer’s mind.

Affordance is essentially the relationships that we perceive within an environment. Perceived affordances become a tool that designers use to invite users to use them. So in web design, when you see something that looks like a button, you push it. There is pretty much no doubt on the user’s part as to what to do with it. Even more so when it’s marked “homepage” and has an inner shadow effect that makes it look like it’s being pressed down when you hover over it.

Ultimately a website should be usable without an instruction manual – it should be intuitive and instant. Affordance helps us achieve this. Look out for affordance in design, and keep it in mind throughout the design phase of your project to achieve the most accessible, usable, and intuitive website possible