What is ISO/IEC 17549-2 about?
ISO/IEC 17549-2 gives guidelines on the design of navigation methods for selection menus with the use of a 4-direction device. The guidelines are applicable to any information equipment on which the display area is associated with a 4-direction device.
ISO/IEC 17549-2 provides recommendations for parameters for display screen settings, character sets and languages in use.
Note: ISO/IEC 17549-2 is not applicable to safety-related uses on menu navigation.
Who is ISO/IEC 17549-2 for?
ISO/IEC 17549-2 on navigation with 4-direction devices is relevant to:
- Display device manufacturing companies
- Product design engineers
- IT applications
Why should you use ISO/IEC 17549-2?
The 4-direction device is defined as a set of physical controls, commonly keys, only one of which is activated at any time, consisting of up-, down-, left- and right controls for the respective functionality. Contemporary information equipment, on which the display area is associated with 4-direction devices, includes sophisticated and complex functionalities within one piece of such equipment. The equipment needs to be operated in terms of changing default settings and to be customized for the individual user. In such a scenario, a 4-direction device is used to navigate the menu shown in the display area, where the menus are normally structured.
ISO/IEC 17549-2 covers recommendations on design rendering, structure and operation of ladder menus, and recommended practices on the structure of and operation of tile menus.
ISO/IEC 17549-2 provides general ergonomic considerations such as ensuring that the user interface makes a clear separation between navigation functions and action functions.
Overall, adopting recommendations on navigation with 4-direction devices by ISO/IEC 17549-2 can help in ensuring navigational concepts are immediately clear on your site/user interface.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS ISO/IEC 17549-2:2020 supersedes BS ISO/IEC 175492:2015. BS ISO/IEC 17549-2:2020 includes some technical changes with respect to BS ISO/IEC 175492:2015. These include:
- In Figures 2, 3, and 4 supplementary explanations have been moved into notes;
- The alternative text for all figures has been included as alternative text in the PDF rather than provided in notes beneath the figures
- An editorial error in Table 2 has been corrected
- Annex B (informative), which was erroneously included, has been deleted
- Minor editorial corrections have been made throughout the document to fully align with ISO/IEC Directives
