Are Design Standards Any Use
for Designing Systems?
Marguerite Autry, Ph.D.
Bill Killam, MA CHFP
20548 Deerwatch Place
Ashburn, VA 20147
(703) 729-0998
What is a standard?
Standards
 “Something, such as a practice or a product,
that is widely recognized or employed,
especially because of its excellence.”
– Dictionary.com (Definition 5)
Guidelines (de Souza & Bevan)
 Guidelines…
– …a useful compilation of HCI knowledge
– …an authoritative source of advice for
designers
– …a means of transferring knowledge to
designers as part of educational or training
courses
Style Guide
 Style – The combination of distinctive
features of literary or artistic expression,
execution, or performance characterizing a
particular person, group, school, or era.
 Guide – Something, such as a pamphlet,
that offers basic information or instruction
- Dictionary.com
Specification
 A detailed, exact statement of particulars,
especially a statement prescribing materials,
dimensions, and quality of work for
something to be built, installed, or
manufactured.
– Dictionary.com
Standards, Guidelines and Style Guides Are
Different from Specifications
 Horizontal Market
– MIL-STD-1472
– IEEE P1583
– The Windows Interface: An Application Design
Guide
 Do not address specific designs, but design
areas
– Sequence control
– Accessibility
Why have a standard?
Why have standards?
 To allow a product to “relate” to other
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products
To meet legal requirements
To assure quality and consistency when more
than one creator is responsible
To ensure industry best practices are used
To create a usable or more usable product
Who would use the standards?
Who would use…
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Human factors specialist
Interaction Designer
IA
Graphic Designer
Content Writer
Software Analyst
Hardware Analyst
Systems Engineer
Software Coder
Hardware Expert
Tester/QA
Manager
How are standards used?
Mosier and Smith Survey Says the Purposes are…
 As an aid during design
 To establish requirements in advance of
design
 To evaluate a proposed design
 To evaluate a completed design
62%
46%
41%
25%
Types of Standards
Types of Standards
 Standards for safety: Cars, food, drugs, highways,
 Standards to assure fairness and consistency: Weights and
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measures
Standards to assure interoperability: CD’s and CD players
Structural standards that describes static, intrinsic
properties of an object for interchangeability: the size,
shape, color, etc.
Functional standards specifies how an object behaves or is
capable of behaving
Performance standards are similar to functional standards
but includes some metric of quality and a given threshold
for that metric
Process standards that define the analysis, design,
and development process
Standards for HCI Design
 Standards containing design data
– DoD
– ISO, ANSI, and HFES standards
– Commercial Standards
– Public Style Guides
– Guidelines Documents
– Books on Design
 Process Standards that describe the process that is to
be used during a design process
– DoD
– ISO
– Book on Design
Standards Containing Design Data
Issue 1: Which Standards to Apply?
 Client-Server
– Guidelines For Designing User Interface
Software
- Smith & Mosier (744 guidelines)
– The Essentials of User Interface Design –
Cooper
– Human-Computer Interface Design
Guidelines – Brown
– Microsoft, Apple, Motif, OpenLook, IBM CUA
Style Guide
Issue 1: Which Standards to Apply? (continued)
 Client Server (continued)
– ISO 9241 (17 parts)
– ISO/IEC 10741-1: Dialogue interaction - Cursor
control for text editing
– ISO 9241:10: Dialogue principles
– ISO 9241:12: Presentation of information
– ISO 9241:13: User guidance
– ISO 9241:14: Menu dialogues
– ISO 9241:15: Command dialogues
– ISO 9241:16: Direct manipulation dialogues
– ISO 9241:17: Form filling dialogues
Issue 1: Which Standards to Apply? (continued)
 Client Server (concluded)
– ISO/IEC 11581: Icon symbols and functions
– ISO 11064: Ergonomic design of control centers
– ISO 13406: Ergonomic requirements for work with
visual displays based on flat panels
– ISO 14915: Software ergonomics for multimedia user
interfaces
– ISO/IEC 14754: Pen-based interfaces - Common
Gestures for text editing with pen-based systems
– IEC TR 61997: Guidelines for the user interfaces in
multimedia equipment for general purpose use
– ISO/IEC 18021: Information Technology - User
interface for mobile tools
Issue 1: Which Standards to Apply? (continued)
 Content
– New York Times Manual of Style and Usage
– Chicago Manual of Style - University of
Chicago
– Elements of Style-Strunk and White
– Developing Quality Technical Information: A
Handbook for Writers and Editors- Hargis,
Rouiller, Wilde
– ISO 9001:2000 Documentation Requirements
Issue 1: Which Standards to Apply? (continued)
 Web Sites
– Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity
- by Nielsen
– Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work Brinck
– Web Usability and Navigation: A Beginner's Guide Merlyn Holmes
– Son of Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by
Looking at Bad Design - Flanders & Peters
– Site-Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability
- Wroblewski
– Web Bloopers : 60 Common Web Design Mistakes, and
How to Avoid Them - Johnson
– Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context –
Badre
– 200 e-commerce guidelines
– Standards for Online Communication- Hackos
– 101 Standards for Online Communication-Stevens
Issue 1: Which Standards to Apply? (concluded)
 Accessibility
– ISO DTS 16071: Guidance on accessibility for
human-computer interfaces
– W3C Web Accessibility Initiatives (WAI)
– Section 508 Web Accessibility for People With
Disabilities - Paciello,
– Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site
More Usable for Everyone
- Slatin & Rush
– Accessibility for Everybody: Understanding the
Section 508 Accessibility Requirements - Mueller
(Author)
– Understanding Accessibility - Yonaitis
– Guidelines for Accessible Web Site: Technology &
Users - Ward, Rubens, Southard
Issue 2: Vagueness
 “Do not use words that typical users may not understand”
 “Ensure that tab labels are clearly descriptive of their
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function or destination”
“Limit the amount of white space…”
“…mechanically operated controls and keys shall be
tactilely discernible…”
“Provide content that, when presented to the user,
conveys essentially the same function or purpose as
auditory or visual content”
Color coding shall not be used as the only means of
conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a
response, or distinguishing a visual element...
Character size should be large enough to be easily read
from the expected viewing distance…
Issue 3: Lack of Complete Guidance
 When products provide auditory output, the
audio signal shall be provided at a standard
signal level
 When a product permits a user to adjust color
and contrast settings, a range of color
selections capable of producing a variety of
contrast levels shall be provided
Issue 4: Interpretation
 The preferred subtended angle of arc for a font
shall be 22 minutes, where Φ = 2 tan-1 [h/2d]
Issue 5: Interaction and Application in the Real World
 Conflicts between various sources, various concerns,
and various design domains
 Standards are developed and tested under specific
conditions. They cannot be generalized to all
populations, activities, and environments.
 Standards are developed by isolating variables;
therefore, interaction issues between individual
standards are not accounted for.
– Selection of font type can effect character size
requirements
– Character size, contrast ratio, lighting conditions can
effect and even overcome the individual standards
Issue 6: Technology Issues
 Guidelines across varying technologies
– PDA, Cell phone, and LSD delivery
– Browser- types and capabilities
 Guidelines based on changing environments
– Screen sizes
– Download speeds
 Guidelines based on emerging technologies
– e.g., screen readers
– Wide screen vs 4:3 aspect ratio displays
Issue 7: Strictly Following Standard Can
Yield Less Than Desirable Results
 Variations on a Theme (by Thomas Payne)…
– Times like these try men’s souls
– How trying it is to live in these times
– These are trying times for men’s souls
– Soulwise, these are trying times
– E.B. White
 Awkward Results
– “This is the sort of English up with which I will not
put.” – Winston Churchill (attributed)
 Valid, but useless…
– Purple dreams sleep furiously.
How to Treat Standards Containing Design Data
“Since the book is a rule book, these cautionary
remarks, these subtly dangerous hints are presented in
the form of rules, but they are, in essence, mere gentle
reminders: they state what most of us know and at
times forget.”
– E.B. White, The Elements of Style
“Learn the rules so you know how to break them
properly”
– the Dali Lama
Process Standards
What are Process Standards?
 Standardize roles and responsibilities
 Standardize activities that need to occur in a
design, their order, and the intended
interaction
 Enforce a separation of design and build/code
efforts
Corporate Standards
Corporate Standards
 Company wide procedures
 Company wide or Product Line specific style guides
– Documentation of Design Decisions
– Standardize common elements of a corporation’s product
line
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Corporate branding
Widget level standardization
Gadget level standardization
Visual layout
 Culmination of data from multiple sources
 Standardize documentation required to get from
guidelines and design data to product specifications
 Standardize product evaluations and levels for acceptance
How does it all fit into the design & development process?
Content Writers
Interaction Designers
Graphics Team
Product
Specification
Corporate Standards
QA
Coders
Management
Are Design Standards Any Use
for Designing Systems?
Conclusions
1. Design handbooks, design guidelines, style guides, and
standards containing design data, are all valuable, but are
best for teaching and learning – not for doing. Designers
should know them before starting a design.
2. Design standards are good for reference, provided they are
specific to the design domain (and not too general) but are
not for designers to have to read and follow. These should
be gathered from different sources as a starting point,
tailored for the domain and corporation, and re-evaluated
each time they are used.
3. Designs should be evaluated against design standards to
ensure that any deviations were intentional.
4. Designs should be evaluated against performance standards
to ensure the product works as desired, regardless of
violating existing guidelines or standards.
5. Design specifications should be developed from the
designers knowledge of guidelines and standards within
the specific design domain.
6. Process standards are more important, as well as
dedicated, skilled people.
There are no Guarantees and no Design Cookbook
 Good products come out of a good design process,
but only if…
– You use experienced design personnel
 Who already know the standards for design
within their field
 Who know where to look for additional data when
needed
 Who have the time and drive to do this work
– “Corporate” standards are used to provide additional
design data and to establish consistent products
– Procedures are in place to allow for a sufficient
design effort to occur, including testing design
assumptions and obtaining user feedback, before
products are developed