This standard provides requirements for the design and development of software user documentation as part of the life cycle processes. It defines the documentation process from the viewpoint of the documentation developer. It also covers the documentation product. It specifies the structure, content, and format for user documentation, and also provides informative guidance for user documentation style. It is independent of the software tools that may be used to produce documentation, and applies to both printed documentation and on-screen documentation. Much of this standard is also applicable to user documentation for systems including hardware.
- Sponsor Committee
- C/S2ESC - Software & Systems Engineering Standards Committee
- Status
- Inactive-Reserved Standard
- PAR Approval
- 2010-11-08
- Superseded by
- 26514-2021
- Board Approval
- 2010-11-08
- History
-
- ANSI Approved:
- 2011-07-19
- Published:
- 2011-01-27
- Inactivated Date:
- 2021-03-25
Working Group Details
- Society
- IEEE Computer Society
- Sponsor Committee
- C/S2ESC - Software & Systems Engineering Standards Committee
- Working Group
-
26514_WG - 26514 User Documentation Design Working Group
- IEEE Program Manager
- Patricia Roder
Contact Patricia Roder - Working Group Chair
- Annette Reilly
Other Activities From This Working Group
Current projects that have been authorized by the IEEE SA Standards Board to develop a standard.
P26516
ISO/IEC/IEEE Draft International Standard - Systems and software engineering – Design and development of instructional videos and animations
This document provides requirements and guidance for the effective planning, design, and development of instructional videos for information technology products and services. Videos and animation can present instructions for installation, operation, maintenance, and disposal for skilled or unskilled users. This document includes the use of video, interactive or hyper-video, animation, virtual or augmented reality to explain how to use systems, including software systems. Instructional videos can include tutorials with prepared use cases or examples. This document specifies content elements, structure, and use of media, including music, narration, captions, titles, and graphics. This document does not include specification of output media formats, content management for videos, or archiving. This document does not cover learning technology systems for recording and administering training programs.
P26517
Systems and software engineering – Development of user assistance in mobile applications
This document defines requirements and includes guidance for design, development, and evaluation of effective and usable user assistance (UA) for mobile applications. It includes principles that can be applied to build an effective UA, focusing on some key issues, e.g., the smaller screen size of mobile devices. The document covers both the transformation of user assistance content developed for other formats (responsive design) and the development of content specifically for mobile use. It describes the processes for designing, testing, and maintaining the UA contents. It presents key concepts, including the target user (first time users or expert users), the business use case addressed by the mobile application, and their associated effects on UA contents. The document focuses on writing UA contents, integrated with multimedia contents (video, music, images). It includes guidance for the translation of UA contents. This document does not include definition (technical specification) of the visual, auditory, tactile and other sensorial input and output methods for the mobile device interfaces.
Standards approved by the IEEE SA Standards Board that are within the 10-year lifecycle.
26514-2021
ISO/IEC/IEEE International Standard - Systems and software engineering -- Design and development of information for users
This document covers the development process for designers and developers of information for users of software. It describes how to establish what information users need, how to determine the way in which that information should be presented, and how to prepare the information and make it available. It is not limited to the design and development stage of the life cycle, but includes information on design throughout the life cycle, such as design strategy and maintaining a design. This document provides requirements for the structure, information content, and format of information for users of software. This document can be applied to developing the following types of information, although it does not cover all aspects of them: - information for users of products other than software; - multimedia systems using animation, video, and sound; - computer-based training (CBT) packages and specialized course materials intended primarily for use in formal training programs; - maintenance information describing the internal operation of systems software; - information for users incorporated into the user interface itself. This document is applicable to information architects and information developers, including a variety of specialists: - information architects who plan the structure and format of information products; - usability specialists and business analysts who identify the tasks that the intended users can perform with the software; - developers and editors of the written content of information for users; - graphic designers with expertise in electronic media; - user interface designers and ergonomics experts working together to design the presentation of the information on the screen. This document is also a reference for those with other roles and interests in the process of developing information for users: - managers of the software development process or the information-development process; - acquirers of information for users prepared by suppliers; - usability testers, reviewers of information for users, subject-matter experts; - developers of tools for creating information for users; - human-factors experts who identify principles for making information for users more accessible and easily used.
These standards have been replaced with a revised version of the standard, or by a compilation of the original active standard and all its existing amendments, corrigenda, and errata.
No Superseded Standards
These standards have been removed from active status through a ballot where the standard is made inactive as a consensus decision of a balloting group.
No Inactive-Withdrawn Standards
These standards are removed from active status through an administrative process for standards that have not undergone a revision process within 10 years.
No Inactive-Reserved Standards