CSA Preface

Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the SCC Mirror Committee (SMC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T).

Scope

This International Standard describes the Common Industry Format (CIF) for reporting usability evaluations. It provides a classification of evaluation approaches and the specifications for the content items (content elements) to be included in an evaluation report based on the selected evaluation approach(es). The intended users of the usability evaluation reports are identified, as well as the situations in which the usability evaluation report can be applied.

The usability evaluation reports in this International Standard are applicable to software and hardware systems, products or services used for predefined tasks (excluding generic products, such as a display screen or a keyboard). The content elements are intended to be used as part of system-level documentation resulting from development processes such as those in ISO 9241-210 and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 process standards.

The content elements for documenting evaluations can be integrated in any type of process model.

NOTE For the purpose of establishing process models, ISO/IEC TR 24774 and ISO/IEC 33020 specify the format and conformance requirements for process models, respectively. In addition, ISO/IEC 15289 defines the types and content of information items developed and used in process models for system and software lifecycle management. ISO/IEC 15504-5 and ISO/IEC 15504-6 (to be replaced by ISO/IEC 33060) define work products, including information items, for the purpose of process capability assessment. Process models and associated information items for human-centred design of interactive systems are contained in ISO/TR 18529 and ISO/TS 18152.