touch screen programming standards?

[vipereyes]

Is there any standard that states Start and Stop buttons on a touch screen must be a specific color? For instance, if I have a button labeled cycle or machine stop, does it have to be red?

 

[IRstuff]

There ought to be at least some common sense about it; would having it pink make any sense? Something used for stopping a machine ought to be prominent, and colored in consistency with the common convention, i.e., red is typical for "off", green is typical for "on".

There are lots of books and standards on human factors for displays and controls:
Defence Standard 00-25(Part 7) HUMAN FACTORS FOR DESIGNERS OF EQUIPMENT PART 10: CONTROLS

Defence Standard 00-25(Part 8) HUMAN FACTORS FOR DESIGNERS OF EQUIPMENT PART 7: VISUAL DISPLAYS

MIL-STD-1472 HUMAN ENGINEERING

TTFN
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[vipereyes]

To me, the only logical choice is red for stop, green for start but I am dealing with a engineer who would like me to program a machine just the opposite. He wants the start button to be red and stop to be green. I think it will cause all kinds of confusion for the operators who have years of experience with actual stop/start buttons using the industry standard of red for stop, green for go. Unfortunately, unless I can find something that gives the colors choices for specific buttons, he will have the say in which color I will use.

 

[IRstuff]

There are those that do argue the reverse.

This is from the first reference:

http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=f3db9470-27ad-4d1e-8f71-7f464ab5d73d&file=page.GIF

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[FreddyNurk]

I can understand the logic behind red for start and green for stop, but as far as I can tell the Emergency Stop function is Red as a standard (I don't think I've ever seen green mushroom head pusbuttons for this purpose), and it certainly wouldn't make sense to me to have the opposite colour coding on the buttons near it.

 

[IRstuff]

OK,

Here's an excerpt from the FAA DOT Human Factors Design Guide Update (Report Number DOT/FAA/CT-96/01): A Revision to Chapter 8-Computer Human Interface Guidelines

8.6.4.3 Reserved meanings. Color coding shall conform to the following reserved meanings consistent with conventional associations for particular colors:
a. Red shall indicate conditions such as no-go, error, failure, or malfunction.
b. Flashing red shall be used only to indicate emergency conditions requiring immediate user action to avert personnel injury or equipment damage.
c. Yellow shall indicate marginal conditions, alert users to situations where caution or rechecking is necessary, or notify users of an unexpected delay.
d. Green shall indicate that a monitored process or unit of equipment is within tolerance, that a condition is satisfactory, or that it is all right to proceed with an operation or transaction.
e. White shall indicate alternative functions or system conditions that do not have operability or safety implications.
f. Blue shall be used only as an advisory color. [Source: MILHDBK-761A, 5.3.1.6.4.b]
Discussion. The use of colors to indicate conventional meanings is also dependent on the color appearing against an appropriately contrasting background. For instance, white or light gray is appropriate for black text. [Source: MIL-HDBK-761A, 5.3.1.6.4.b]


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[IRstuff]

The FAA HFDG has been superceded by the HFDS:

http://hf.tc.faa.gov/hfds/

The section cited above is now 8.6.2.4.3

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[IRstuff]

Chapter 6 of the HFDS Exhibit 6.2.2.1.27 shows similar information

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