IMPORTANT: We'll be in a different room of the Portfolio Center tonight. Due to a scheduling mishap at the venue, Andrew will be talking in the downstairs meeting space instead of in the usual "big room".

When you arrive, just come in the main entrance then walk to the end of the hall and you will see a door on the left that opens to the staircase (we'll post signs). We'll be at the bottom of the stairs.

As form and function increasingly come to define the websites we create, it's up to today's web designers to make their designs speak for themselves. After all, no one like to read documentation.

In this talk, we'll discuss affordances, an aspect of visual psychology that's crucial to interaction designers. We'll discuss their psychological foundations; their role in more traditional design disciplines; and how they drive the way laymen use the modern web. In closing, we'll look at over design, and how it clouds our users' vision.

What will I get out of this session?

• Information related to the psychological foundations of interaction design
  
• Examples of affordances in industrial and interaction design
  
• A set of considerations to make when designing interfaces
  

About Andrew Maier
Andrew Maier designs interactions and provides user experience consulting for a variety of clients, having formerly worked with Hashrocket, a world–class web–application consultancy. He writes, speaks, and teaches about design and its intersection with the internet. In addition he serves as the editor–in–chief of the user experience blog, UX Booth. When he's not crazy busy, Andrew likes singing, practicing yoga and drinking coffee.