ISO 9241-112:2025

Overview

ISO 9241-112:2025 - Ergonomics of human-system interaction - Part 112: Principles for the presentation of information defines ergonomic principles and recommendations for the software-controlled presentation of information in interactive systems. The standard applies across the three primary modalities - visual, auditory and tactile/haptic - and to outputs from interactive systems (including printed documents and common export formats such as PDF, text and tabular data). It focuses on perception and understanding of presented information and is intended for use in analysis, design and evaluation of user interfaces. This is the second edition (2025), technically revising the 2017 edition with updated terms and guidance.

Key Topics and Requirements

The document provides a concise set of principles with accompanying recommendations (not exhaustive) that guide how information should be presented to users. Major principles include:

• Detectability - ensure users can perceive important information (prominence, timely presentation, continuity).
• Discriminability - enable users to distinguish items (structuring, attributes, proximity, similarity).
• Conciseness - keep content and required actions efficient and focused.
• Unambiguous interpretability - avoid ambiguity in meaning; support comprehensibility, coherence, modality selection, and temporal appropriateness.
• Freedom from distraction - minimize interruptions and competing signals that impair focus.
• Consistency (internal and external) - use predictable, logical presentation and align with user conventions.

Other covered topics: modalities and media, accessibility considerations, action guidance, aesthetics, and relationships to other ISO 9241 interaction principles.

Note: ISO 9241-112:2025 addresses software-driven presentation and cross-modal recommendations; it does not specify hardware-controlled physical characteristics (see related standards).

Practical Applications

• Use during UI design to shape how information is displayed, spoken, or haptically signalled.
• Apply in usability evaluation and accessibility audits to identify presentation-related issues that affect speed, accuracy, cognitive load and user experience.
• Inform content export and print workflows so exported PDFs, tables and text remain usable and correctly interpretable.
• Guide development of UI toolkits, style guides and automated checks for information presentation quality.

Who Should Use This Standard

• UI/UX designers and interaction designers
• Software, system and service developers
• Usability evaluators and accessibility assessors
• Tool and style-guide authors
• Project managers and procurement officers specifying usability requirements

Related Standards

• ISO 9241-110 (interaction principles)
• ISO 9241-125 (visual user-interface recommendations)
• ISO 9241-171 (software accessibility guidance)
• ISO 9241-303 (hardware-controlled characteristics)

Keywords: ISO 9241-112:2025, ergonomics, human-system interaction, presentation of information, user interface design, accessibility, visual auditory haptic, UI principles.