Global or regional HFT standardization: That is the Question 3/2

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Global or regional HFT standardizationThat is
the Question 3/2

• Floris L. van Nes,
• Blake L. Wattenbarger

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Technical vs. Human Factors standards

• Technical standards want to guarantee the
  possibility to use products
• Human factors standards aim to ensure ease of
  use of such products
• Telecommunication knows both types of standards
  their "geographical extension" varies, from
  national via regional to global

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Locus of Human Factors work in ETSI

• ETSI Technical Committee Human Factors, TC HF,
  from ETSI's foundation has been the place where
  all (?) human factors work directed at human
  factors telecom standards for the European
  Community is done
• 'European political will' has been very helpful
  for the creation of such standards

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Locus of Human Factors work in ITU-T

• SG 2, Operational aspects of service provision,
  networks and performance, is for historical
  reasons home of most human factors work in ITU-T,
  located in
• Q.3/2, Human factors related issues for
  improvement of the quality of life through
  international telecommunications

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Opportunities for standardization in
telecommunications the cell phone

• High complexity plus user inability or
  impatience some features suffer disuse
• Standardized operating procedures help users with
  newly acquired cell phones
• Such standards must be voluntary and
  manufacturers must help to develop them

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If so where to start ?

• Experience in developing international human
  factors standards suggests the importance of
  empirical studies
• Survey in many countries "What cell phone
  features remain unused, despite their perceived
  usefulness, because they are too difficult to
  find or operate ?"
• Followed by focused studies of potential design
  solutions to particular difficulties

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Example 1 Design, evaluation and selection of
new symbols

• In 2001 Japan proposed to standardize new symbols
  for 13 telecommunications functions
• Q.4/2 decided to follow the procedure from ITU-T
  Rec. F.910 for testing these symbols
  internationally by 17 participants in each of
  5 countries on 3 continents
• 17 symbols 13 from Japan 4 alternatives, were
  tested, 9 finally selected for ITU-T Rec. E.121

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Methodology

• Part 1 selection of best from 17 symbols for
  each of 13 functions, one at a time (to check if
  symbols were chosen well)
• Part 2 intended symbols for each function were
  shown to participants questions on familiarity,
  ease to use and remember
• Part 3 identification of function for each
  symbol, one at a time as in practice (to check
  ease of learning and using them)

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Example 2 Tactile identifiers for ID-1 cards

• MRCs Machine Readable Cards, often give
  positioniong problems
• to all users, regardless of their eyesight !
• visually impaired users need help
• recognition of card position by 'tactile
  identifier'
• but what kind of tactile identifier is best ?

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Investigation of type, place and size of tactile
marker

• Seven different types of tactile markers
• Stacks of 20 randomly oriented cards, with each
  of the seven markers
• Ordering task speed and errors were measured
• Ranking the seven types in terms of preference
• More prominent tactile markers are better
• Best was a 2 mm arc-shaped notch on one of the
  long card sides

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Other applications and arguments

• One single standard for tactile identifiers on
  ID-cards for public phones and ATMs
• No long-side notches on banking cards
• Experiment to check whether a 2 mm notch on the
  short side was as good as on the long side showed
  it was
• Subjects preferred the notch to be on the
  trailing edge of the card

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Tactile marker

• On short card side
• 2.0 mm deep
• Under magn. stripe

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Concluding remarks

• Standardization is a process such as making laws
  an essential part of society
• Global standards remove trade barriers
• Standards need to be widely known and supported
  to be really effective !
• Those who make the standards make the rules of
  the game (Jim Greeson)