A framework for user experience, needs and affordances

•The key aspects and shortcomings of current user experience models.•The advantages of exploiting affordances for user experience design.•A definition of affordance which considers experiential possibilities.•A framework for describing human–product interactions in terms of affordances.

As design of interactive products started to address the whole user experience, User Experience (UX) became an established field of research. Nevertheless UX design presents some risks, such as providing users with experiences that they do not wish. Furthermore, UX methodologies lack prescriptive tools for guiding designers. This paper establishes a link between UX research and Affordance theory and postulates the concept of Experience Affordances. Affordances represent a first step toward the development of prescriptive methods and help preventing designer from imposing experiences to users. Thus, a framework for describing product experience in terms of affordances is exposed and discussed by analysing exemplary products. In concluding the paper, the implications of the framework are presented.