Ergonomic standards go beyond hardware

Author

Billingsley, Patricia A.

Author_Institution

TeraQuest Metrics, Austin, TX, USA

Volume

11

Issue

2

fYear

1994

fDate

3/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

82

Lastpage

84

Abstract

European concerns about ergonomics, which are closely linked to worker health and safety have already expanded to a directive that affects user-interface design. Now the European Community is debating whether or not the directive should be tied to a standard, ISO 9241. As ISO 9000 has demonstrated, this is not just a concern for European developers. US developers are also finding that ISO standards gate their entry into the global market. The author reports on the status of this decision. Although conformance issues are still being hotly debated, ISO 9241 may be laying the foundation for more usability standards. Software companies may soon have a new ISO standard to be concerned with.<>

Keywords

ergonomics; government policies; standards; user interfaces; EC directive; European Community; European developers; ISO 9000; ISO 9241; ISO standards; US developers; conformance issues; ergonomic standards; global market; safety; software companies; usability standards; user-interface design; worker health; Computer displays; Ergonomics; Europe; Hardware; Legislation; Software quality; Software standards; Standards development; Standards organizations; Usability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0740-7459

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/52.268963

Filename

268963