Guideline summary

Screen uniformity

Uniformity facilitates learning and ensures fast recognition of new screens.

Apply uniformity to visual objects of similar attribute, to facilitate the learning of new objects of the same attribute.

Screen distinctiveness

Distinctiveness enables at-a-glance recognition of the particular object

Apply distinctiveness to visual objects and modes that must not be confused with other objects or modes.

Design

Screens associated with the same primary situation (routine, exceptional, emergency) should share a dominant visual attribute (such as layout).

The dominant visual attribute of the primary situations should be different from each other, to enable at-a-glance recognition of the primary situation.

Screens used in routine operation should be distinguished from each other by other dominant visual attributes, such as layout, background color or figure, etc.

Alert messages

alert messages should have a similar layout, and messages of similar risk level should look similar to each other. Each message should incorporate special visual cues for message recognition.