IBM i General Design Standards › Design Standards for User Interfaces › Interface Consistency

Interface Consistency

IBM’s SAA divides consistency into three levels:

• Physical—The actual layout of physical elements such as keyboards must be consistent. On the IBM midrange, physical consistency is for the most part taken care of by the hardware.
• Syntactic—The use of interface elements must be consistent. For example, the presentation language (e.g. panel layout), the action language (e.g. F3=Exit) and CL syntax all need to be consistent. The SAA standards lay down rules for many aspects of interface consistency. The OS/400 Guide to Programming Application and Help Displays spells out how you should interpret these for the iSeries.
• Semantic—The meaning of the interface elements and their interactions must be consistent. For instance, Exit should always take you back from a panel, without further update.

Note: Software productivity tools can play an important part in the successful implementation of consistent interface standards by suggesting, supplying, and even requiring, standardized design defaults.