ISO 9241-306:2018

Overview

ISO 9241-306:2018 - "Ergonomics of human-system interaction - Part 306: Field assessment methods for electronic visual displays" defines practical field assessment methods for evaluating electronic visual displays in their real-world contexts of use. It specifies optical, geometrical and visual inspection approaches to assess display performance and ergonomics in accordance with the generic requirements of ISO 9241-303. This second edition (2018) updates earlier guidance and includes informative annexes (e.g., CRT considerations).

Key topics and requirements

The standard organizes inspection and measurement methods around observable display behaviour and user-relevant properties. Key topics include:

• Preparation for assessment: cleaning, set-up, warm-up and control settings to ensure repeatable measurements.
• Viewing conditions: design viewing distance and direction, gaze and head-tilt angles, and handling of virtual images.
• Luminance and lighting: assessment of ambient illuminance, display luminance, luminance balance, glare and luminance adjustment.
• Special environments: evaluation considerations for vibration, wind/rain and extreme temperatures.
• Visual artefacts: detection and assessment of luminance/colour/contrast non‑uniformity, geometric distortions, pixel faults, flicker, jitter, Moiré and unwanted reflections.
• Legibility & readability: methods for testing luminance contrast, image polarity, character height, stroke width, spacing (characters, words, lines) and text size constancy.
• Information coding & graphics: legibility of luminance, blink and colour coding, geometric coding and graphical object size/contrast.
• Fidelity and rendering: grey scale/gamma, moving image rendering, colour misconvergence, image formation time and spatial resolution.
• Other considerations: surface anisotropy/isotropy, viewing-angle range, adjustability, controllability and luminous environment.

The document provides test charts and informative annexes to support on-site linearization and measurement procedures.

Applications and users

ISO 9241-306:2018 is intended for professionals performing ergonomic and performance verification of displays in situ, including:

• Ergonomists and human factors specialists assessing usability and visual ergonomics.
• Display manufacturers and integrators performing acceptance testing and field validation.
• Occupational health & safety teams evaluating workplace display ergonomics.
• System designers, QA engineers and accessibility specialists ensuring legibility, contrast and coding meet user needs in target environments.

Typical applications: control rooms, medical workstations, industrial HMIs, vehicle and avionics displays, public information displays and office workstations.

Related standards

• ISO 9241-303 (generic ergonomic requirements for electronic visual displays) - reference for contextual requirements.
• Other parts of the ISO 9241 series for display test methods, accessibility and human-system interaction best practices.