ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Urban Science
The Action-Preference-Design (APD)Triad: A Framework for Fostering Child-Friendly Commuting
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden Heights, Malaysia
- 2Jiangxi Institute of Fashion Technology, Nanchang, China
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Children's school journeys provide daily opportunities for movement, learning, and social interaction, yet the affordances of street environments in high-density neighborhoods often fail to support these developmental experiences. Grounded in ecological psychology, this study proposes an Action–Preference–Design (APD) Triad to extend the affordance-based transactional framework. The APD Triad links children's actions, environmental preferences, and design implications. This study addresses the research gap that existing affordance studies lack an integrated framework linking action, preference, and design, and have rarely explored how neighborhood streets shape these dimensions in children's everyday experiences. Using observations, sketch maps, and go-along interviews, this study conducted in a dense neighborhood in Nanchang, China, involved 80 primary school children aged 8–11 to examine the dynamic interactions between children and their commuting environments. Results reveal that landmarks as a distinct affordance category within children's spatial cognition, and that the diversification and actualization of affordances are essential for sustainable, child-friendly street design. Children's preferences clustered around features that enhanced connectivity, familiarity, and indirect supervision, fostering positive emotions and a sense of belonging. By articulating the APD Triad, this study offers a conceptual bridge between behavioral evidence and design practice, contributing to an affordance-oriented framework for child-friendly urban environments.
Keywords: affordance theory3, child-friendliness4, dense urban neighborhood5, street environment1, triad relationship2
Received: 26 Sep 2025; Accepted: 07 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Jiali, Huaheng, Ying and Aziz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Liu Jiali
Fadzila Aziz
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