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 and 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.