DRAFT STANDARD ACQUITTED IN MOCK TRIAL

On May 29, 1990, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) issued a directive (90/270/EEC) that requires employers within the EEC to purchase and use software products that comply with a series of user interface standards. These are likely to include the multipart ISO 9241 standard, "Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs)." The CEN directive will take effect on January 1, 1993, and allow European employers five years to make sure that computer products in use comply with the appropriate standards. Although many previous user-oriented standards have concerned hardware aspects of computer systems, the standards in question legislate software interface design requirements. Software products marketed within the EEC will need to comply with these standards, regardless of where the software products were developed.