The interface as discourse: The production of norms through web design

Stanfill, Mel

doi:10.1177/1461444814520873

Cited by 82 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Such an analysis asks: -Which are the paths of least resistance and why, given the circumstances? (Stanfill 2015). This is essentially a matter of identifying the salient dispositions and contingencies through which an affordance operates on an actor.…”

Section: Affordance Opportunities and Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy instrument affordances: a framework for analysis

Hellström

Jacob

2017

Policy Studies

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The present study uses the concept of technological efficacy derived from ecological psychology and design studies to offer an alternative way of analyzing how policy instruments affect change. Reasoning from this, the paper outlines a framework for analyzing policy instruments in terms of their affordances. We define affordances as the means through which an instrument exerts influence on its intended target audience. Using this approach, we contend that policy instruments may be analyzed as interfaces that organize social relations and create structures of opportunity and/or restrict possibilities for action. We argue that explicating the pathways through which instruments afford or constrain action is a central task for policy analysis. Our proposed framework of analysis builds on the idea that instruments yield effects by facilitating action and learning. We further contend that the actions that an instrument can facilitate or inhibit are determined by specific affordance modalities of the instrument in conjunction with contingencies of the actor and the policy environment. Examples from research policy are used to illustrate some of these effects.

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Section: Affordance Opportunities and Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy instrument affordances: a framework for analysis

Hellström

Jacob

2017

Policy Studies

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“…In the software studies literature, affordances are usually observed through active use, for example in the case of norms and values communicated through interface design (Stanfill, 2015), or, as demonstrated by Bucher and Helmond (2018), by evaluating user comments. However, complementary to these earlier studies, this article suggests considering the evolution of software affordances over time, including software versions that can no longer be experienced first hand.…”

Section: Towards a Diachronic Perspective On Software Affordancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupting video game distribution

Werning

2019

Nordic Journal of Media Studies

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This article analyses the disruptive potential of Valve’s game distribution platform, Steam, focusing specifically on how Steam has evolved into a de facto online social network and how Valve uses constant feature changes as part of its corporate rhetoric. Despite its profound influence on the video game industry, scholarly inquiry into Steam has focused on analyses of user or value creation. However, Steam arguably derives its long-term disruptive potential from combining the gamification of digital distribution with the formation of ephemeral public spheres around the games that it distributes, thereby becoming a de facto online social network. To investigate this strategy, the article employs a historically comparative affordance analysis, drawing on a small data set of Steam blog posts and tech blog coverage from 2007 to 2018 to map patterns of affordance change.

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“…Affordances are features (material and semiotic) that constrain the ways that technology might be designed and configured, as well as interpreted by users (Hutchby 2001). Stanfill (2015) argues that affordances draw on Foucauldian notions of productive power to make "normative claims" about the purpose and appropriate use of the technology, building a set of interpretive possibilities into the interface. The normative claims work to establish a "cultural common sense" about the users of the interface (Stanfill 2015).…”

Section: Interface Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stanfill (2015) argues that affordances draw on Foucauldian notions of productive power to make "normative claims" about the purpose and appropriate use of the technology, building a set of interpretive possibilities into the interface. The normative claims work to establish a "cultural common sense" about the users of the interface (Stanfill 2015).…”

Section: Interface Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We ask how the Emma interface leverages Latina identity as a strategic design choice, along with what kinds of normative claims about U.S citizenship, immigration, and Latina identity are inscribed in the design and positioning of the virtual assistant. We take cues from Latina Feminist Media Studies foregrounding of "the female/Latina body as an analytical cornerstone" (Cepeda, 2016, 345), with critical technology studies' use of interface analysis (Brock, 2012;Stanfill, 2015;Sweeney & Brock 2014) to consider how affordances structure the interface ideologically. We argue that Emma's design mobilizes Latina identity to interpellate the "ideal" citizen as well as the undesired immigrant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Designing the “good citizen” through Latina identity in USCIS’s virtual assistant “Emma”

Villa-Nicholas

Sweeney

2019

Feminist Media Studies

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Virtual assistants are increasingly integrated as 'user-friendly' interfaces for e-government services. This research investigates the case study of the virtual assistant, 'Emma,' that is integrated into the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website. We conduct an interface analysis of Emma, along with the USCIS website, and related promotional materials, to explore the cultural affordances of Latina identity as a strategic design for this virtual assistant. We argue that the Emma interface makes normative claims about citizenship and inclusion in an attempt to 'hail' Latinx users as ideal citizens. We find that the 'ideal' citizen is defined through the Emma interface as an assimilated citizen-consumer that engages with digital technologies in ways that produce them as informationally 'legible' to the state.

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The interface as discourse: The production of norms through web design

Cited by 82 publications

References 26 publications

Policy instrument affordances: a framework for analysis

Policy instrument affordances: a framework for analysis

Disrupting video game distribution

Designing the “good citizen” through Latina identity in USCIS’s virtual assistant “Emma”

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