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For what it's worth, the US military often references MIL-STD-1472 [1] to frame general design requirements for pretty much anything that involves direct human

For what it's worth, the US military often references MIL-STD-1472 [1] to frame general design requirements for pretty much anything that involves direct human interaction. [1] http://quicksearch.dla.mil/qsDocDetails.aspx?ident_number=36903 http://quicksearch.dla.mil/qsDocDetails.aspx?ident_number=36...

mathewsanders 10y ago
I just had a quick scan through it but fascinating the depth and breadth of criteria. There's a table with about ~60 different room environments from lounge, galley, to actual workstations and the level that the room should be illuminated, and for workstation rooms, the reflectance of different materials in the room. Great find! ps I'm probably the only person here using safari, but the page to load the PDF didn't load for me so here's link to latest revision: http://quicksearch.dla.mil/Transient/72FC2386C1C2425E8298D6C43BF80CE2.pdf http://quicksearch.dla.mil/Transient/72FC2386C1C2425E8298D6C... (2012).
- alphapapa 10y ago
  That URL says "Transient" for a reason. ;)
keehun 10y ago
This is really cool! Just glanced through it, and saw this: 5.4.2 Orientation. Labels and information thereon (i.e., words and symbols) shall be oriented horizontally to read from left to right. Vertical orientation, reading from top to bottom, may be used only when labels are not critical for personnel safety or performance and where space is limited. Where vertical orientation is necessary, the characters shall be readable in an upright orientation as depicted on figure 31. Sideways text and text read from bottom to top are unacceptable. Such a definition seems like common sense, and then I realized there is probably someone out there in the vast military industry who probably doesn't care enough and may actually place a label sideways from bottom to top... It is also amazing how much longer it takes me to read a label when letters are arranged vertically but not sideways. Sideways and vertical is quicker for me.
- falcolas 10y ago
  That is interesting. I agree with you on the speed of reading, but it does offer one very interesting advantage - every single label offers an indication as to the "proper" orientation of the object you're reading the label on. I imagine that alone would be quite useful in emergency situations, or even in general loading/unloading operations. My wife works for a shipping company, and unless it's on a pallet, it is likely to be orientated incorrectly on at least one of the legs of its journey.

mathewsanders 10y ago

I just had a quick scan through it but fascinating the depth and breadth of criteria. There's a table with about ~60 different room environments from lounge, galley, to actual workstations and the level that the room should be illuminated, and for workstation rooms, the reflectance of different materials in the room. Great find! ps I'm probably the only person here using safari, but the page to load the PDF didn't load for me so here's link to latest revision: http://quicksearch.dla.mil/Transient/72FC2386C1C2425E8298D6C43BF80CE2.pdf http://quicksearch.dla.mil/Transient/72FC2386C1C2425E8298D6C... (2012).

alphapapa 10y ago
That URL says "Transient" for a reason. ;)

keehun 10y ago

This is really cool! Just glanced through it, and saw this: 5.4.2 Orientation. Labels and information thereon (i.e., words and symbols) shall be oriented horizontally to read from left to right. Vertical orientation, reading from top to bottom, may be used only when labels are not critical for personnel safety or performance and where space is limited. Where vertical orientation is necessary, the characters shall be readable in an upright orientation as depicted on figure 31. Sideways text and text read from bottom to top are unacceptable. Such a definition seems like common sense, and then I realized there is probably someone out there in the vast military industry who probably doesn't care enough and may actually place a label sideways from bottom to top... It is also amazing how much longer it takes me to read a label when letters are arranged vertically but not sideways. Sideways and vertical is quicker for me.

falcolas 10y ago
That is interesting. I agree with you on the speed of reading, but it does offer one very interesting advantage - every single label offers an indication as to the "proper" orientation of the object you're reading the label on. I imagine that alone would be quite useful in emergency situations, or even in general loading/unloading operations. My wife works for a shipping company, and unless it's on a pallet, it is likely to be orientated incorrectly on at least one of the legs of its journey.