Public policy increasingly plays a role in influencing the work that we do as HCI researchers, interaction designers, and practitioners. “Public policy” is a broad term that includes both government policy and policy within non-governmental organizations, such as standards bodies. The Interacting with Public Policy forum focuses on topics at the intersection of human-computer interaction and public policy.

Jonathan Lazar, Editor
Why the CHI Community Should
Be Involved in Standards
Stories from three CHI participants
Arnie Lund

Microsoft | [e-mail]

Jean Scholtz

Pacific northwest national Laboratory | [e-mail]

Nigel Bevan

Usability Consultant | [e-mail] January + February 2012

interactions

We all realize that standards are good. For example, consider when something in your house breaks and you need to find a replacement part. What size does the part need to be? Will we be able to attach it successfully without needing a machine shop? Standards are great for mechanical things—for various car parts and in factories, to ensure that a failed component doesn’t necessitate a whole new piece of equipment—but why on Earth would we want standards in human-computer interaction?

The examples highlighted here are
for very specific and enduring stan-
dards. If we created detailed stan-
dards for user interfaces, however,
they would be outdated by the time
the standards were completed, as it
takes time to get them approved and
in place. Moreover, wouldn’t setting
standards be contrary to the creativ-
ity we are always looking for in user-
interface design? Do we even need
standards? After all, the software
industry has long produced its own
style guides to bring consistency
to applications based on its APIs
and created default standards that
human-computer interaction (HCI)
research has built upon. The indus-
try has also driven influential stan-
dards efforts, such as those from
W3C, which continue to shape the
Web experience and its accessibility.