ISO 9241-410:2008— Ergonomic Input Devices
A 2023 study of administrative staff at Bangladeshi universities revealed a strong correlation between poor workstation ergonomics — including suboptimal keyboard and input device setups — and a higher prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among employees. The research highlights how improper input device design and placement can contribute to discomfort, strain, and long-term injury. This where ISO 9241-410:2008—Ergonomics of human-system interaction – Part 410: Design criteria for physical input devices comes handy — an international standard that outlines ergonomic design criteria for keyboards, mice, and other input devices.
What Is the ISO 9241 Series?
ISO 9251 was originally developed as a seventeen-part International Standard on the ergonomics requirements for office work with visual display terminals. As part of the standards review process, a major restructuring of ISO 9241 was agreed to broaden its scope, to incorporate other relevant standards and to make it more usable.
The ISO 9241 standards series currently provides ergonomic requirements and guidance for human-system interaction, focusing on the design and usability of interactive systems to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction. It covers a broad range of topics, including human-centered design principles, accessibility, visual display requirements, physical input devices, and guidance for web interfaces.
ISO 9241-410:2008 is part of the ISO 9241 series and covers evaluation methods for the design of physical input devices for interactive systems.
Defining Input Devices
An input device is a hardware component that allows users to send data, instructions, and control signals to an information processing system, such as a computer. Essentially, an input device translates human actions of physical conditions into signals that a computer can understand and process. Input devices act as a computer’s “senses,” enabling interaction and providing raw information for the system to process. Common examples include keyboards, mice, microphones, scanners, and touchscreens.
Furthermore, according to ISO 9241-410:2008, input devices are “a means for users to enter data into interactive systems. Generally speaking, an input device is a sensor that can detect changes in user behavior (gestures, moving fingers, etc.) and transform it into signals to be interpreted by the interactive system. An input device is regarded as the combination of hardware with the software designed to use it (e.g., a driver).”
What Is ISO 9241-410:2008?
ISO 9241-410:2008 specifies criteria based on ergonomics factors for the design of physical input devices for interactive systems including keyboards, mice, pucks, joysticks, trackballs, trackpads, tablets and overlays, touch-sensitive screens, styli and light pens, and voice- and gesture-controlled devices. It gives guidance on the design of these devices, taking into consideration the capabilities and limitations of users, and specifies generic design criteria for physical input devices, as well as specific criteria for each type of device.
The standard defines design criteria for products on the basis of relevant properties of physical input devices as laid down in ISO 9241-400:2007. It is intended to cover assessment methods for laboratory use (in order to accelerate future development of test and evaluation methods) and user organizations in future parts of ISO 9241.
ISO 9241-410:2008 is expected to be used by the manufacturers of physical input devices, including product designers and test organizations, in determining the design characteristics of a device for its intended context of use (user population, task, software or environment, etc.). The data generated by the users of ISO 9241-410:2008 for the description of the properties of their products can be applied in the selection of a device adequate for the actual context of use on the basis of the task primitives relevant for the task of the specific user population, and for achieving the required level of efficiency and effectiveness for a given system.
ISO 9241-410:2008 does not specify the categories that are appropriate for devices as, according to the concept of usability, a product has no inherent usability. Selecting the category to which a certain property of a device belongs is subject to the design of a product.
What Is ISO/TS 9241-411:2012?
ISO/TS 9241-411:2012 was developed to support and extend ISO 9241-410:2008 by adding practical testing methods of input devices to assure they meet ergonomic requirements and are comfortable and effective for users. This technical specification presents methods for the laboratory analysis and comparison of input devices for interactive systems. It does not contain requirements for input devices, but it provides the means for evaluating conformance with the requirements of ISO 9241-410:2008 for input devices, such as:
- Keyboards (identified as “full-size” or “compact” by the manufacturer)
- Mice
- Pucks
- Joysticks
- Trackballs
- Touch pads
- Tablets/overlays
- Touch-sensitive screens
- Styli/light pens.
The target users of this part of ISO/TS 9241-411:2012 are manufacturers, product designers, and test organizations concerned with commercial input devices.
ISO/TS 9241-411:2012 is not applicable to those of the requirements of ISO 9241-410:2008 that relate to gesture-and voice-input systems.
ISO/TS 9241-411:2012— Ergonomics of human-system interaction – Part 411: Evaluation methods for the design of physical input devices and ISO 9241-410:2008—Ergonomics of human-system interaction – Part 410: Design criteria for physical input devices are available on the ANSI Webstore.
