Affordance

A property of an object that suggests how it can be used: a button looks pressable, a handle looks pullable

James J. Gibson coined the term in ecological psychology (1977). Don Norman brought it to design in The Design of Everyday Things (1988), and later added signifiers: the perceivable cues that communicate an affordance. On screens, the signifier does most of the work: an underline, a shadow, a cursor change, or a focus ring.