>> Study Group 2 : Operational aspects of service provision, networks and performance
Question 3/2 – Human factors related issues for improvement of the quality of life through international telecommunications
- Motivation
This question is mainly aimed at contributing to
the sustainability of our future society by ensuring the fulfillment of
telecommunication and information procurement needs of all participating
members of that society, including older people and persons with disabilities,
through the acquisition and application of required knowledge to this aim,
including that of modern and classical human factors, and in particular
industrial and graphic design in relation to work on pictograms and
interactions with alphabetic queries entered on numeric keypads.
UN Secretary Kofi Annan’s pronouncement at the start of the ‘international year of the older
person’: “Creating an enabling environment for healthy life styles” can be
applied to the fields where ITU-T is, or should be, active: ICT in a wide
sense. This is in line with one of the Principles declared by the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS): “The sharing and strengthening of global
knowledge for development can be enhanced by facilitating access to public
domain information, including universal design and the use of assistive
technologies.” It is envisioned that governments would play an important role
in such issues, in concordance with one of the elements of the WSIS Plan of
Action: “Governments, through public/private partnerships, should promote
technologies and R & D programmes in such areas as translation, iconographies,
voice-assisted services, etc.”.
This question is also aimed at increasing usage
and therefore revenues derived from international telecommunication services by
improving ease of use and usability. With ever increasing international travel
and rapid globalization of the communications industry, a degree of
standardization or consistency in the design of services from the user's
viewpoint, for example, would improve the ease and therefore frequency with
which such services are used across international boundaries.
The following major Recommendations, in force at the time of approval of this Question, fall under its responsibility:
E.121, E.122, E.123, E.124, E.125, E.126, E.127,
E.128, E.130, E.131, E.132, E.134, E.135, E.136, E.137, E.138, E.161, E.181,
E.182, E.183, E.184, E.330, E.331, E.333, F.901, F.902, F.910.
- Question
Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:
- Which
basic elements of the human interface, such as access and control procedures
for important functions of services, presentation of address or user feedback
information, presentation of tone signals to international telecommunication
services, are relevant to multiple services, and therefore should be made
consistent or standardised to a certain extent, to simplify learning and
accelerate user acceptance?
- How can a smooth dialogue between the user and the service be ensured if this
dialogue is voice-assisted?
- What can be done to facilitate entering alphabetic information in a terminal with
only a numeric keypad, by providing at least a certain degree of consistency
across systems and services?
- What Recommendations on language-specific issues need to be developed, such as for a
language-free indication to enter a code for the language to be used for an
interactive voice response service?
- What Recommendations on new symbols and pictograms to assist telecommunication
users, including symbols for facilities and services that accommodate people
with disabilities and older people, need to be developed?
- What enhancements or new Recommendations need to be developed to eliminate, or at
least minimize, the difficulties that older people and people with disabilities
often face when using publicly accessed services, through public or private
terminals?
- What Recommendations are needed to specify, and thereby promote the development and
production of, mobile telephones with reduced complexity and increased
usability, also for older people and persons with disabilities?
- Tasks
Tasks include, but are not limited to:
Maintenance and enhancements of those Recommendations in the E and F series that are related to
Human Factors, with regard to applicability, interoperability, new user
interface layers or other requirements.
Note: an up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the SG 2 Work Program
- Relationships
4.1 Within Study Group 2
4.2 With other groups
- CEN TC 224 WG 6, “Man-machine interface”
- ETSI TC HF, “Human Factors”
- ISO/TC 159/SC 4, “Ergonomics of human system interaction”
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