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ISO 9241 is a multi-part standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) covering ergonomics of human-system interaction and related, human-centered design processes (see also human-computer interaction). It is managed by the ISO Technical Committee 159. It was originally titled Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs). [1] From 2006 onwards, the standards were retitled to the more generic Ergonomics of Human System Interaction. [2]
As part of this change, ISO is renumbering some parts of the standard so that it can cover more topics, e.g. tactile and haptic interaction. For example, two zeros in the number indicate that the document under consideration is a generic or basic standard. Fundamental aspects are regulated in standards ending with one zero. A standard with three digits other than zero in the number regulate specific aspects. The first part to be renumbered was part 10 (now renumbered to part 110). [3]
Part 1 is a general introduction to the rest of the standard. Part 2 addresses task design for working with computer systems. Parts 3 to 9 deal with physical characteristics of computer equipment. Part 110 and parts 11 to 19 deal with usability aspects of software, including Part 110 (a general set of usability heuristics for the design of different types of dialogue) and Part 11 (general guidance on the specification and measurement of usability).
The revised multipart standard is numbered in series as follows:
Within those series, the standard currently includes the following parts:
The first edition of ISO 9241-110 was issued in 2006. [4] In 2020, a revised version (second edition) was published, titled "Ergonomics of human-system interaction — Part 110: Interaction principles". The core idea of the standard was not changed. Interaction principles are design guidelines for user interfaces that embody principles. The seven interaction principles are applicable to the design of any user interface, whether it is software, hardware or a combination of both.
Some principles have been refined to be more appropriate to today's possibilities or forms of interaction and User Engagement has been introduced as a new interaction principle. For each interaction principle, general design recommendations are given, which helps to follow them when designing user interfaces.
The 2020 revision tied the earlier principle of individualisation into the principle of controllability, and introduced the principle of user engagement. [4]
Part 210:Human-centred Design This part, updated in 2019, provides guidance on human-system interaction as holistic approach to plan, research, conceptualize, specify, design, develop, deploy and maintain interactive systems throughout their lify cycle. Is also covers the importance of sustainability and accessibility within the human-centered approach. [5] [6]
With its introduction in 2008, it revised ISO 13407, Human-centred design for interactive systems. [7]
Of particular interest to the lay computer user are the definitions of flat-panel TV and monitor pixel defects provided in the ISO-9241-3xx series of standards (which renders obsolete ISO 13406-2). These identify three classes for measuring pixel defects in flat panel monitors:
(allowed pixed defects per 1 (one) million pixels in the TFT/LCD matrix)
As of 2010, most premium branded panel manufacturers specify their products as Class 0, expecting a small number of returns due to early failure where a particular item fails to meet Class 0 but would meet Class 1. Budget panel manufacturers tend to specify their products as Class 1.[ citation needed ] Most premium branded finished product manufacturers (retail TVs, monitors, laptops, etc.) tend to specify their products as meeting Class 1 even when they have a Class 0 specified panel inside. Some premium branded finished product manufacturers have started to specify their products as Class 0 or offer a Class 0 guarantee for an additional premium. [8] [9] [10]
ISO 9241 was originally titled Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) and consisted of the following parts:
Part 1: (1997) Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) : General Introduction This part introduces the multi-part standard ISO 9241 for the ergonomic requirements for the use of visual display terminals for office tasks and explains some of the basic underlying principles. It provides some guidance on how to use the standard and describes how conformance to parts of ISO 9241 should be reported.
Part 2: (1993) Guidance on task requirements This part deals with the design of tasks and jobs involving work with visual display terminals. It provides guidance on how task requirements may be identified and specified within individual organisations and how task requirements can be incorporated into the system design and implementation process.
Part 3: (1993, deprecated) Visual display requirements This part specifies the ergonomics requirements for display screens which ensure that they can be read comfortably, safely and efficiently to perform office tasks. Although it deals specifically with displays used in offices, it is appropriate to specify it for most applications that require general purpose displays to be used in an office-like environment.
Part 4: (1998) Keyboard requirements This part specifies the ergonomics design characteristics of an alphanumeric keyboard which may be used comfortably, safely and efficiently to perform office tasks. Keyboard layouts are dealt with separately in various parts of ISO/IEC 9995: 1994 Information Processing - Keyboard Layouts for Text and Office Systems
Part 5: (1998) Workstation layout and postural requirements This part specifies the ergonomics requirement for a Visual Display Terminal workplace which will allow the user to adopt a comfortable and efficient posture.
Part 6: (1999) Environmental requirements This part specifies the ergonomics requirements for the Visual Display Terminal working environment which will provide the user with comfortable, safe and productive working conditions.
Part 7: (1998, deprecated) Display requirements with reflections This part specifies methods of measurement of glare and reflections from the surface of display screens, including those with surface treatments.
Part 8: (1997, deprecated) Requirements for displayed colors This part specifies the requirements for multicolour displays which are largely in addition to the monochrome requirements in Part 3.
Part 9: (2000) Requirements for non-keyboard input devices This part specifies the ergonomics requirements for non-keyboard input devices which may be used in conjunction with a visual display terminal. It also includes a suggestion for a user-based performance test as an alternative way of showing conformance. The standard covers such devices as the mouse, trackball and other pointing devices, but it does not address voice input.
Part 10 (1996, withdrawn) "Dialogue principles": Gives ergonomic principles formulated in general terms; they are presented without reference to situations of use, application, environment or technology. These principles are intended to be used in specifications, design and evaluation of dialogues for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs). [3]
Part 11: (1998) To examine the quality of how well tasks are fulfilled by the users (usability testing), ISO 9241-11 framework can be employed. [11]
There are three components in the framework: System Effectiveness to examine the users’ ability to complete the given tasks, System Efficiency to examine the required user resources to complete the tasks, and System Satisfaction to record the users’ opinions and feedback. [12]
System Effectiveness: Participants are asked to complete six tasks, and the success or failure rate of completing each task is measured to evaluate the app’s efficiency. Task completion is considered successful when the user completed the task without producing an error or asking for assistance.
System Efficiency: For evaluating system efficiency, the researcher records the time (in seconds) that participants took to complete each task. Each task is initiated by expressing the word ‘start’ and finished when the user mentioned the end. Upon completing each task, the user is asked to fill out the Single Ease Questionnaire (SEQ) to examine the level of task difficulty. The questionnaire is a seven-point Likert scale in which scale 1 indicates the task as ‘very difficult’, and scale 7 indicates the task as ‘very easy’. [12]
System Satisfaction is used to evaluate the overall usability of the apps through System Usability Scale (SUS), which is a usability assessment questionnaire with reliable and valid results. It includes ten questions, each with five items ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. The score range is from 0 to 100 and scores higher than 80 are considered high usability while those below 70 are considered low usability. [11]
Part 12: (1998) Presentation of information
This part contains specific recommendations for presenting and representing information on visual displays. It includes guidance on ways of representing complex information using alphanumeric and graphical/symbolic codes, screen layout, and design as well as the use of windows.
Part 13: (1998) User guidance
This part provides recommendations for the design and evaluation of user guidance attributes of software user interfaces including Prompts, Feedback, Status, On-line Help and Error Management.
Part 14: (1997) Menu dialogues
This part provides recommendations for the ergonomic design of menus used in user-computer dialogues. The recommendations cover menu structure, navigation, option selection and execution, and menu presentation (by various techniques including windowing, panels, buttons, fields, etc.).
Part 15: (1998) Command language dialogues
This part provides recommendations for the ergonomic design of command languages used in user-computer dialogues. The recommendations cover command language structure and syntax, command representations, input and output considerations, and feedback and help.
Part 16: (1999) Direct manipulation dialogues
This part provides recommendations for the ergonomic design of direct manipulation dialogues, and includes the manipulation of objects, and the design of metaphors, objects and attributes. It covers those aspects of Graphical User Interfaces that are directly manipulated, and not covered by other parts of ISO 9241.
Part 17: (1998) Form-filling dialogues
This part provides recommendations for the ergonomic design of form filling dialogues. The recommendations cover form structure and output considerations, input considerations, and form navigation.
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine from the human end, while the machine simultaneously feeds back information that aids the operators' decision-making process. Examples of this broad concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems, hand tools, heavy machinery operator controls and process controls. The design considerations applicable when creating user interfaces are related to, or involve such disciplines as, ergonomics and psychology.
Fitts's law is a predictive model of human movement primarily used in human–computer interaction and ergonomics. The law predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the ratio between the distance to the target and the width of the target. Fitts's law is used to model the act of pointing, either by physically touching an object with a hand or finger, or virtually, by pointing to an object on a computer monitor using a pointing device. It was initially developed by Paul Fitts.
Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a software can be used by specified consumers to achieve quantified objectives with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a quantified context of use.
Computer accessibility refers to the accessibility of a computer system to all people, regardless of disability type or severity of impairment. The term accessibility is most often used in reference to specialized hardware or software, or a combination of both, designed to enable the use of a computer by a person with a disability or impairment.
User-centered design (UCD) or user-driven development (UDD) is a framework of process in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or process are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process. These tests are conducted with/without actual users during each stage of the process from requirements, pre-production models and post production, completing a circle of proof back to and ensuring that "development proceeds with the user as the center of focus." Such testing is necessary as it is often very difficult for the designers of a product to understand intuitively the first-time users of their design experiences, and what each user's learning curve may look like. User-centered design is based on the understanding of a user, their demands, priorities and experiences and when used, is known to lead to an increased product usefulness and usability as it delivers satisfaction to the user. User-centered design applies cognitive science principles to create intuitive, efficient products by understanding users' mental processes, behaviors, and needs.
In human–computer interaction, WIMP stands for "windows, icons, menus, pointer", denoting a style of interaction using these elements of the user interface. Other expansions are sometimes used, such as substituting "mouse" and "mice" for menus, or "pull-down menu" and "pointing" for pointer.
User experience (UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency. Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers, and creators when creating and refining products because negative user experience can diminish the use of the product and, therefore, any desired positive impacts. Conversely, designing toward profitability as a main objective often conflicts with ethical user experience objectives and even causes harm. User experience is subjective. However, the attributes that make up the user experience are objective.
Web usability of a website consists of broad goals of usability, presentation of information, choices made in a clear and concise way, a lack of ambiguity and the placement of important items in appropriate areas as well as ensuring that the content works on various devices and browsers.
User interface (UI) design or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and the user experience. In computer or software design, user interface (UI) design primarily focuses on information architecture. It is the process of building interfaces that clearly communicate to the user what's important. UI design refers to graphical user interfaces and other forms of interface design. The goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing user goals.
Cognitive ergonomics is a scientific discipline that studies, evaluates, and designs tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems and how they interact with humans and their cognitive abilities. It is defined by the International Ergonomics Association as "concerned with mental processes, such as perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, as they affect interactions among humans and other elements of a system. Cognitive ergonomics is responsible for how work is done in the mind, meaning, the quality of work is dependent on the persons understanding of situations. Situations could include the goals, means, and constraints of work. The relevant topics include mental workload, decision-making, skilled performance, human-computer interaction, human reliability, work stress and training as these may relate to human-system design." Cognitive ergonomics studies cognition in work and operational settings, in order to optimize human well-being and system performance. It is a subset of the larger field of human factors and ergonomics.
User experience design, upon which is the centralized requirements for "User Experience Design Research", defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a company, its services, and its products. User experience design is a user centered design approach because it considers the user's experience when using a product or platform. Research, data analysis, and test results drive design decisions in UX design rather than aesthetic preferences and opinions, for which is known as UX Design Research. Unlike user interface design, which focuses solely on the design of a computer interface, UX design encompasses all aspects of a user's perceived experience with a product or website, such as its usability, usefulness, desirability, brand perception, and overall performance. UX design is also an element of the customer experience (CX), and encompasses all design aspects and design stages that are around a customer's experience.
Human Factors Integration (HFI) is the process adopted by a number of key industries in Europe to integrate human factors and ergonomics into the systems engineering process. Although each industry has a slightly different domain, the underlying approach is the same.
ISO 13406-2 is an ISO standard, with the full title "Ergonomic requirements for work with visual displays based on flat panels -- Part 2: Ergonomic requirements for flat panel displays". It is best known to end consumers for defining a series of flat-panel display "classes" with different numbers of permitted defects. ISO 13406-2 also provides a classification of Viewing Direction Range Classes and Reflection Classes.
The viewing cone refers to the effective viewing directions of an LCD display, as seen from the eye. This collection of angles resembles a cone. The concept has been introduced as an international standard ISO 13406-2, which defines it as the range of viewing directions that can safely be used for the intended task without "reduced visual performance". This standard describes a complex procedure which evaluates the viewing cone from measurements of luminance and chromaticity versus direction of observation. ISO 13406-2 introduces 4 viewing direction range classes, from a wide viewing cone, for many simultaneous observers, to the so-called "privacy display", with a severely limited viewing cone. Compliance routes for different display applications can now be found in the successor standard ISO 9241-300.
An interaction technique, user interface technique or input technique is a combination of hardware and software elements that provides a way for computer users to accomplish a single task. For example, one can go back to the previously visited page on a Web browser by either clicking a button, pressing a key, performing a mouse gesture or uttering a speech command. It is a widely used term in human-computer interaction. In particular, the term "new interaction technique" is frequently used to introduce a novel user interface design idea.
Human-centered design is an approach to problem-solving commonly used in process, product, service and system design, management, and engineering frameworks that develops solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process. Human involvement typically takes place in initially observing the problem within context, brainstorming, conceptualizing, developing of concepts and implementing the solution.
Human-centered design is an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, and usability knowledge and techniques. This approach enhances effectiveness and efficiency, improves human well-being, user satisfaction, accessibility and sustainability; and counteracts possible adverse effects of use on human health, safety and performance.
Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design technologies that allow humans to interact with computers in novel ways. A device that allows interaction between human being and a computer is known as a "Human-computer Interface (HCI)".
Distinguishable interfaces use computer graphic principles to automatically generate easily distinguishable appearance for computer data.
Ergonomics, also known as human factors or human factors engineering (HFE), is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Primary goals of human factors engineering are to reduce human error, increase productivity and system availability, and enhance safety, health and comfort with a specific focus on the interaction between the human and equipment.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35 User interfaces is a standardization subcommittee (SC), which is part of the joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1, of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that develops standards within the field of user-system interfaces in information and communication technology (ICT) environments. The subcommittee was founded at the 1998 Sendai ISO/IEC JTC 1 Plenary meeting, before which it was a working group directly under ISO/IEC JTC 1. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35 is AFNOR, located in France.