Usability standards

Hi 

A question came up in yesterday's call about whether there were usability
standards. I think it was Barry who mentioned ISO 9241-11. This is entitled
"Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs)
-- Part 11: Guidance on usability". This, along with ISO 13407 seem to be
the major standards.

I checked my various resources and came up with the following additional
information.

ISO 13407: "Human-centred design processes for interactive systems" is
another ISO document.

Ansi.org has some information, but I haven't yet read the material I
downloaded from there.

I asked Tim if he had inside contacts at nist.gov that could tell us about
standards. I couldn't find any on the site myself.

Through one of my bookmarks, I found this great summary on Usability
Standards Organizations:
http://www.listserv.acm.org/archives/wa.cgi?A2=ind0111c&L=chi-web&F=&S=&P=54
59
(Watch for broken hyperlinks.) They refer to ISO and also UPA, the Usability
Professionals Association (www.usabilityprofessionals.org) It gives a nice
little summary about the various standards and approaches.

One last reference is about the CIF: Common Industry Format that "defines a
consistent method of carrying out usability tests." This information, in a
nice little article, can be found at
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/cif.html. A sample of the CIF "template"
can be found at http://uzilla.net/uzilla/blog/cif/template.html

I have ordered 9241-11 from the library - it's only around 22 pages. Jutta
was the one who brought this up, so Jutta, do you want me to follow up on
any of this? I know someone in Belgium with the 13407 document and could ask
him for info (can't seem to get it through the Danish library network, which
include universities). I also have groups where I can post questions. Just
say the word!

regards, Karen Mardahl