CommLedgeETSI publishes EG 203 499 v2.1.2 on Harmonised ICT Terminology
11/10/2022 /17:08 Filed in: Accessibility | Standards
The ETSI Guide EG 203 499 provides recommended terms for basic and commonly used ICT-related objects and activities, notably those terms that end users are commonly exposed to. Recommended terms are provided in 19 languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish (as spoken in their respective European countries).
The terms (words, labels) used in the User Interface (UI) of a device, service or application may present an obstacle for their users if they are not familiar with those terms or if they are unsure as to their meaning. While some terms are introduced by manufacturers to denote a new class of features or to distinguish own features from those offered by competitors, most other terms denoting device or service features are not necessarily intended for differentiation.
However, in the absence of a harmonized or recommended terminology, the use of those terms may differ considerably among manufacturers and service providers, thereby introducing ambiguity for end users. The alternative to a confusing plethora of terms is some degree of harmonization among devices, services, and applications, at least for terms not intended to convey a certain brand feature or image. A harmonized terminology can be employed to help prevent the negative effects of an uncontrolled expansion of terms and the resulting ambiguity of the terms. Those negative effects include:
The terms (words, labels) used in the User Interface (UI) of a device, service or application may present an obstacle for their users if they are not familiar with those terms or if they are unsure as to their meaning. While some terms are introduced by manufacturers to denote a new class of features or to distinguish own features from those offered by competitors, most other terms denoting device or service features are not necessarily intended for differentiation.
However, in the absence of a harmonized or recommended terminology, the use of those terms may differ considerably among manufacturers and service providers, thereby introducing ambiguity for end users. The alternative to a confusing plethora of terms is some degree of harmonization among devices, services, and applications, at least for terms not intended to convey a certain brand feature or image. A harmonized terminology can be employed to help prevent the negative effects of an uncontrolled expansion of terms and the resulting ambiguity of the terms. Those negative effects include:
- increased user difficulties in understanding complex, ambiguous, and inconsistently used terms, leading to unnecessary confusion;
- increased efforts in user education (user guides);
- increased costs for user support (hotline calls and call agent training);
- limited feature discovery and unclear user expectations (customers who do not understand certain features may not use them, hence some revenue may be missed);
- limited uptake (users may be reluctant to use a feature as they are not sure whether it has the expected effect);
- increase of cognitive complexity and subsequent learning effort; and
- abuse in the use of proprietary terms and lack of consistent use of terms.