The new ISO 9241-110 "Dialogue principles"
Berlin, 11.08.2006
Why has the original ISO Standard ISO 9241-10 been revised?
All ISO Standards are subject to revision every five years by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Thus, it was only a matter of time before ISO 9241-10 (published in 1995) was going to be inspected for the need of revision. In early 2000 the responsible ISO committee ISO/TC159/SC4/WG5 identified required improvements and changes and initiated the revision. The revision process took five years due to the important International consensus process where experts from many countries approve the changes and feed in their valuable input. In April 2006, the new ISO 9241-110 was published by ISO.
Why a new number?
ISO 9241-110 is part of the ISO 9241 series "Ergonomics of human-system interaction" which originally consisted of 17 parts. Over the years ISO identified the need for further additional standards parts as well as the need for the integration of ISO standards that were published outside of the 9241 series (e.g. ISO 13407, ISO 14915). This led to a new numbering scheme of the ISO 9241 series which allows integration of new parts in a structured manner. Upcoming standards such as ISO/DIS 9241-151 "Guidance on World Wide Web user interfaces" and ISO/DIS 9241-171 "Guidance on software accessibility" will well fit into this new structure.
What is new in ISO 9241-110?
The scope of the standard has been enlarged to not only serve for software user interfaces but also for (computer based) interactive hardware user interfaces. The title of the overall 9241 series has been renamed to "Ergonomics of human system interaction" to take off the former restriction to "Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals".
The term "user interface" has now been clearly defined as "all components of an interactive system (software or hardware) that provide information and controls for the user to accomplish specific tasks with the interactive system".
A framework for the application of the dialogue principles in analysis, design and evaluation has been added to the standard (see figure 1). Furthermore, ISO 9241-110 contains an example that illustrates the use of the framework in practice.
What has been kept?
In general, the standard was systematically improved and refined, rather than turned upside down.
The seven dialogue principles have been kept as
No "new” principle has been added. The seven already established dialogue principles proved their robustness.
Conclusions
The 57 guidelines for the dialogue design of use interfaces given in the new ISO 9241-110 have been sharpened and many practical examples were added to illustrate their application. The examples are based on software as well as hardware user interfaces. This state-of-the-art know how should be adopted by corporate UI guideline writers and taught as part of university courses for future user interface designers of in order to improve the usability of user interfaces produced in industry.
About the Author
Thomas Geis is Managing Director of ProContext and editor of ISO 9241-110.
All ISO Standards are subject to revision every five years by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Thus, it was only a matter of time before ISO 9241-10 (published in 1995) was going to be inspected for the need of revision. In early 2000 the responsible ISO committee ISO/TC159/SC4/WG5 identified required improvements and changes and initiated the revision. The revision process took five years due to the important International consensus process where experts from many countries approve the changes and feed in their valuable input. In April 2006, the new ISO 9241-110 was published by ISO.
Why a new number?
ISO 9241-110 is part of the ISO 9241 series "Ergonomics of human-system interaction" which originally consisted of 17 parts. Over the years ISO identified the need for further additional standards parts as well as the need for the integration of ISO standards that were published outside of the 9241 series (e.g. ISO 13407, ISO 14915). This led to a new numbering scheme of the ISO 9241 series which allows integration of new parts in a structured manner. Upcoming standards such as ISO/DIS 9241-151 "Guidance on World Wide Web user interfaces" and ISO/DIS 9241-171 "Guidance on software accessibility" will well fit into this new structure.
What is new in ISO 9241-110?
The scope of the standard has been enlarged to not only serve for software user interfaces but also for (computer based) interactive hardware user interfaces. The title of the overall 9241 series has been renamed to "Ergonomics of human system interaction" to take off the former restriction to "Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals".
The term "user interface" has now been clearly defined as "all components of an interactive system (software or hardware) that provide information and controls for the user to accomplish specific tasks with the interactive system".
A framework for the application of the dialogue principles in analysis, design and evaluation has been added to the standard (see figure 1). Furthermore, ISO 9241-110 contains an example that illustrates the use of the framework in practice.
Figure 1: Framework for the application of ISO 9241-110
What has been kept?
In general, the standard was systematically improved and refined, rather than turned upside down.
The seven dialogue principles have been kept as
- suitability for the task;
- self-descriptiveness;
- conformity with user expectations;
- suitability for learning;
- controllability;
- error tolerance;
- suitability for individualization.
No "new” principle has been added. The seven already established dialogue principles proved their robustness.
Conclusions
The 57 guidelines for the dialogue design of use interfaces given in the new ISO 9241-110 have been sharpened and many practical examples were added to illustrate their application. The examples are based on software as well as hardware user interfaces. This state-of-the-art know how should be adopted by corporate UI guideline writers and taught as part of university courses for future user interface designers of in order to improve the usability of user interfaces produced in industry.
About the Author
Thomas Geis is Managing Director of ProContext and editor of ISO 9241-110.