The standard factor
Pat Billingsley · ACM SIGCHI Bulletin · 1989
This quarter's column focuses on standard user interfaces, as opposed to user interface standards. User interface standards attempt to ensure that certain minimum software usability criteria are met, regardless of the specific type or style of user interface implemented. A standard user interface, on the other hand, is based on a set of design rules, guidelines, or conventions that describe the specific appearance and behavior of interface elements. In theory, if developers adhere to these specifications, the user interfaces they design will be consistent with all others designed under the same constraints. The following article, reprinted with permission of the author and IEEE, discusses many of the difficulties associated with standard user interfaces from a human factors perspective. It is precisely because of these difficulties that, even if the entire industry agreed to adopt one standard user interface, there would still be a need for higher-level user interface standards.