What is an affordance — with examples

I’ve been taking the IDF course on affordances, and following on an article on Medium by Patrick Thornton, I wanted to understand this a bit better, because I find referring to ‘real world’ objects doesn’t really help when looking at a GUI.

I find a lot of these comparisons a little difficult to carry across to the digital medium. A hammer is nothing like an app!

I’m sharing here in the hope it helps others, like myself, better understand what affordances are on a digital interface.

I’d also love to hear if anyone has any thoughts on this, or if you have your own examples you want to comment on or share.

All claps are much appreciated!