Brynn Marie Evans

affordances, originally uploaded by bmevans80.

When I was waiting to use the restroom on a flight recently, I noticed that a flight attendant had placed some paper towels between the handles of the (rear) door. I didn’t want to presume I knew why he did this, so I asked: “What are those for?” He turned to me and said, “Honey, I like to have everything I need at arm’s reach! So when I’m making drinks, I can just turn, <<grabs a towel>>, and wipe up the mess <<tosses towel in trash>> ” Ha—I thought so! The door handles afforded certain properties: the two handles were spaced just far enough from each other that a stack of paper towels could slide between them without falling; they were removed from the critical (drink preparation) zone, but close enough to be an “arm’s reach” away; and they were about arm’s height off the floor, making them convenient to grab with a normal arm’s reach. I love it.