affordances

Technological Affordances

• The technology of static or unmoving imagery is relatively easy to incorporate. With little to no html knowledge or with the simple click of an "insert image" button, an author/designer can make this happen.
• The technology emphasizes one type of argumentative action by an author/designer: focus on this image because it is our vision of what is important to our audience.
• Though this imagery or vision could be changed regularly by the author/designer, it may not be. And, if designed appropriately for the web, it wouldn’t have a large effect on download times.

Representational Affordances

• Because the primary image is of a woman (we assume to be a professor) working with a college student and with young school children, it synecdochizes WSU with teaching and education.
• Serving as a synecdoche for a teacher/professor, the professor in the image represents teachers/professors as white, older women who dress conservatively in the school's colors.
• The college-age student in the background synecdochizes future grade school teachers as young, white women. 
• The young Asian boy might be said to represent racial diversity though not for college students or faculty.
• Kress and Leeuwen might say, the close up shot of the teacher with students suggests intimacy in the education taking place, rather than impersonal interactions (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996, p. 121). This is a hands-on school with students and teachers interacting face-to-face (as the school slogan, “World Class. Face to Face” boasts) rather than long or far away shots, which may suggest impersonal or distant connection.
• The two other smaller pictures on the homepage juxtapose buildings and tell a story of WSU blending old and prestigious with new and exciting or innovative learning environments.

constraints

Technological Constraints

• The technology ONLY emphasizes one type of argumentative action by an author/designer: focus on this image because it is our vision of what is important to our audience.
• This imagery or vision could be changed regularly by the author/designer, but it probably won't be. Also, one visitor may only experience the one set of images/synecdoches above if he/she never visits the homepage again. So there's still a limited opportunity for identification between the college and its audience.

Representational Constraints

• The primary image synecdochizes WSU with ONLY teaching and education, leaving out all other fields of study.
• Serving as a synecdoche for a teacher/professor, the professor in the image represents teachers/professors as ONLY white, older women who dress conservatively.
• The college-age student in the background synecdochizes future grade school teachers as ONLY young, white women. 
• The Asian boy being taught by two white women synecdochizes teaching/learning as ONLY non-white students being taught by white women.
• The close up shot of the teacher with the students suggests education is intimate and hands-on. It is promoting intimate, hands-on education as THE form of education, which is, of course, based on a certain value system that some teachers and students might not prefer.
• The smaller pictures of buildings assume a blend of prestige and innovation is important. The school values the past and the present, rather than one or the other.