National Health Service - Using HCI standards to improve procurement

Friday, 04 June 1999
With the introduction of NHS Trusts, information technology procurement is now distributed to over 200 separate units. The STEP project (STandards Enforcement through Procurement) is a major scheme to ensure that cost- effective procurement takes place through defining agreed national IT standards. The heart of the scheme is a Procurement Questionnaire aimed at approved suppliers which sets out nationally agreed NHS standards (based where appropriate on international, European and national standards). The questionnaire responses allow the purchasing units to eliminate unsuitable bids and to compare suppliers offerings on a more objective basis. The questionnaire itself is supported by guidance material which explains how to specify which standards are required and what their use aims to achieve. However, there are many issues which are still under development or which are not yet at the stage where agreed standards can be specified. The third part of the package is therefore tutorial material on the standards under development, the activities of the standards bodies and other relevant background information. We were commissioned to develop the questionnaire, guidance and tutorial material on Human Computer Interfaces, one of ten main chapters. This covered user interface hardware standards such as keyboards, display screens etc. as well as interface software standards such as dialogue design, interface components and interface technology platforms. Date: 04 June 1999 Category: Usability & HCI
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 26 March 2008 )