My 20 month year old son Tristan made a visit to my office last week. As we were leaving, he fell victim to my office’s front door. For years I have despised this door, as no matter how many times I walk through it, I always fall for it’s crappy affordances.

This is a door that opens outward as you walk through it from inside my office, so to open it you must PUSH. Myself, and many of my co-workers, continue to PULL on the handles to these doors as we are leaving the office. In many cases, it’s because we allow instinct to take over and guide our movement rather than step in and control our behavior directly. This is due to the fact that we are normally on the phone as we are leaving, calling clients one last time, or checking in with home for any last minute errands before heading home. Seriously, after over 4 years this is a door that plagues me and many others!

The lesson my son taught me, was that we humans have a naturally ability to compute and react to perceived affordances. (Something I already knew being a UXer, but he nailed it home) It wasn’t until this little human, who is still trying to figure out the world around him, attempted to PULL on the door rather than PUSH on it that it dawned on me that our reactions to affordances is almost instinctual. In a world where we are constantly exposed to more and more stimuli, I believe we are becoming more reliant on our ability to instinctively react to perceived affordances more than ever.

So why does this matter? It matters because as designers tackle problems that impact our everyday lives, it’s imperative that our instinctual reactions to affordances are taken into account. If you save me the five seconds it takes for me to figure out WHY the door isn’t opening when I PULL on it, then you are making my life a bit more stress free and easier to navigate. And if I ever meet you face to face, I’ll probably give you a hug.

So if you are someone that is trying to solve the everyday problems of people, consider how a toddler might behave when presented with a particular affordance. Because chances are, a busy adult with umpteen-million things going through their brain will react the same exact way.

Ok so the title isn’t 100% accurate since it’s actually been 7 months, but it should go to show how behind I am with my fatherhood writings. The first half of Tristan’s first year has been crazy, hectic, and completely wonderful. Being able to sit back and watch him figure out how to do something is enlightening. Observing him learning reminds me how to learn things too, something I’ve forgotten somewhere along the way.

Lately, we’ve been able to watch him take his first steps to being a normal “human”. Having barely started his adventures into crawling, Tristan feels the need to spend his time standing up leaning against things more than anything. Crawling is just a mechanism for him to go from standing on one piece of furniture to the next. This is no surprise to me, as I walked myself at 7 months old. Now, we’re hoping that Tristan won’t walk THAT soon, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see him taking his first stand alone steps in the next month or so.

The biggest transition has been the eating of real food. The doc says the food doesn’t really do anything for him besides get him used to eating food rather than milk. Feeding him his baby food is always an adventure though, but not in a bad way. Tristan getting his lunch or dinner is generally a very audible experience, filled with grunts, coos, and squeals. Some of this is probably my fault, as I try to get him to say ‘Nom Nom Nom’ when he is eating. Hopefully, one day he will say these three wonderful words while eating and I know it will be followed by me laughing my head off.

The first half of this crazy year is over, and the next is well under way. Hopefully, I’ll find more time to write about being a dad and the adventures of my son. But, as I’ve quickly learned being a dad takes A LOT of time.

P.S. This post would have been done 10 minutes ago, but Tristan crawled over and we got into a tickling match. I won for those interested.

It’s been just about 3 months since Tristan has joined our world, and everyone in our household is finally getting settled down with the new addition. My wife and I made it through the transition fairly well, and I can state with much pride that I’m able to successfully work on a computer with an infant AND a dog in my lap. Speaking of our dog, Loki, he seems to be the one taking it the hardest making the adjustment.

Just to put everyone’s fears at easy, Loki has not made a single aggressive move towards Tristan. If anything, he tries to lick him to death every chance he gets. The poor dog does get very jealous though, since the baby has taken up residence in one of his favorite places. Our laps. Over the last couple of months, we have gotten a bit creative and found a way to fit them both in our laps. This does make getting up in any kind of hurry a challenge however.

Tristan is about to take over the last bit of what Loki might see as his territory in our house. He has gotten to the age where getting some belly time is becoming more important, and has even begun to roll over. For 3 years, the floor has been the one area of the house that was strictly Loki’s. If we laid down, he immediately knew you wanted to play. Discouraging this urge to play with anyone that’s on the floor is going to be our next big step with properly integrating the dog and the baby.

Another observation we’ve made with Loki is his need to ensure his scent is present on any of Tristan’s stuff. Normally, this means rolling around on his blankets or cloths. Sometimes Loki takes it to the extreme and sleeps in Tristan’s rocker, Boppy, and most recently his car seat. As of last night, I don’t think Loki will be attempting to car seat again. While attempting to get comfortable, he rolled the car seat off the couch, and tumbled across the room. Bear in mind that during the fall and subsequent rolling, he was ‘safely’ tucked inside. Needless to say, it freaked the poor dog out and we don’t think he will be looking to take a nap in the car seat any time soon.