Overview
ISO/IEC TR 30109:2015 - "Information technology - User interfaces - Worldwide availability of personalized computer environments" describes methods to deliver a consistent, culturally and linguistically appropriate personal computing environment to users anywhere on the Internet. It focuses on mechanisms to transport and apply a user’s preference bundle across different hardware and software platforms so the user experiences a uniform interface whether on a laptop, kiosk, TV or mobile device.
Key topics and technical requirements
- User preferences and preference bundles: Profiles include cultural, language, accessibility and personal settings. Profiles are extensible and may contain alternate options with associated weights to express preference priorities.
- System capabilities: An extensible representation of local hardware/software capabilities and available services to enable capability-to-preference matching.
- APIs, services and file formats:
- Recommendation for XML UTF-8 formatted preference and capability files.
- Example XML tags: locale, keyboard, input_method, system, application with parameters such as name, data and weight.
- Support for arbitrary embedded data in the data parameter to carry application-specific preference files.
- User preference delivery service: Secure retrieval (preferably HTTPS) of preference files from preference servers. Identification methods described include email-based IDs, certificate schemes (e.g., Verisign, CAcert), OpenID, PGP/GPG and external identity providers (Google, Facebook, Microsoft). A practical tip in the report: use “..” instead of “@” where keyboards lack the ‘@’ key.
- Preference settings program: Local software that retrieves profiles, performs capability matching (algorithm can be standardized but implementation-defined), and updates system and application settings. Suitable for lightweight local processing or cloud-hosted environments.
- Matching and quality tags: System may include quality/weight metrics (e.g., application-level quality attributes referencing ISO/IEC TR 19764 or ISO/IEC 15897).
Applications and users
Who benefits:
- Software and platform developers implementing personalized user interfaces
- Cloud and service providers offering user profile delivery and personalization services
- System integrators building multi-device kiosk, hotel or shared-computer solutions
- Accessibility and localization engineers ensuring culturally and linguistically appropriate UI
Practical uses:
- Roaming users obtaining familiar keyboard, input methods and language settings on public or foreign devices
- Enterprises providing standardized employee desktop profiles across devices
- Cloud-based desktops that adapt local input/output to user preferences
Related standards
Standards referenced in the report that are relevant for implementers:
- ISO/IEC 9995, ISO/IEC 14775 (input methods)
- ISO/IEC 15897 (locale registrations)
- ISO/IEC TR 19764 (quality attributes)
- RFC 1345 (mnemonic IM names)
ISO/IEC TR 30109:2015 provides a practical framework for interoperable, secure delivery and application of personalized computing environments across diverse devices and cultures.