Overview

Tactile and haptic interactions are becoming increasingly important as candidate interaction modalities in computer systems such as special-purpose computing environments (such as simulation), and in assistive technologies. While considerable research exists, a lack of ergonomic standards in this area could result in systems being developed without sufficient concern for either ergonomics or interoperability, leading to serious ergonomic difficulties for users of multiple, incompatible or conflicting tactile/haptic devices/applications. This part of ISO 9241 gives recommendations for tactile and haptic hardware and software interactions. It provides guidance on the design and evaluation of hardware, software, and combinations of hardware and software interactions, including - the design/use of tactile/haptic inputs, outputs, and/or combinations of inputs and outputs, with general guidance on their design/use as well as on designing/using combinations of tactile and haptic interactions for use in combination with other modalities or as the exclusive mode of interaction, - the tactile/haptic encoding of information, including textual data, graphical data and controls, - the design of tactile/haptic objects, - the layout of tactile/haptic space, and - interaction techniques. It does not provide recommendations specific to Braille, but can apply to interactions that make use of Braille. The recommendations given in this part of ISO 9241 are applicable to at least the controls of a virtual workspace, but they can also be applied to an entire virtual environment - consistent, in as far as possible, with the simulation requirements.

Document: references other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 023-00-04 GA - Joint working committee NAErg/NIA: Ergnomics for information processing systems  

Responsible european committee

CEN/TC 122/WG 5 - Ergonomics of human-system interaction  

Responsible international committee

ISO/TC 159/SC 4/WG 9 - Tactile and haptic interaction