The Graz Manifestio on Usability and the Human-centered Approach
Preamble
This Manifesto establishes the World Usability Council, bringing together its signatories in a shared commitment to advancing the human-centered approach and usability as foundational principles for the design and development of organizations, products, services, processes, systems, and public institutions.
Together, we affirm that every person has the right to human-centered quality [1] in the organizations, products, services, processes, systems, public institutions, and governments that shape their lives.
We further commit to upholding these shared values and to actively opposing policies, practices, or actions that undermine or contradict them. Recognizing our ethical responsibility, the Council is committed to ensuring that human-centered approaches deliver the greatest possible benefit to the broadest range of people, promote well-being and safety, and prevent harm.
The Council is founded on the universal and indivisible values of human dignity, freedom, equality, and solidarity. Its work is guided by the principles of democracy, scientific rigor, and evidence-based practice.
The Council places people at the center of every decision by promoting and advancing internationally recognized standards for human-centered design and usability.
In fulfilling its mission, the Council works to preserve and strengthen these shared values while respecting the diversity of cultures, traditions, industries, organizations, and public institutions around the world.
The following articles lay the foundation of a common understanding of the human-centered approach, thus guiding governments, associations, organizations, teams and professionals.
Article 1: Usability
1) The availability of products, systems, services, or processes with good usability [2] is a prerequisite for social prosperity and economic growth.
2) Usability is an objective quality of products, systems, services, and processes provided by people for people.
3) Usability protects users, increases productivity, and enhances well-being.
Article 2: Accessibility
1) The accessibility [3] of products, systems, services, and processes ensures that all people can participate in life without discrimination.
2) Accessibility is an attitude, not a matter of specific technology.
3) As a principle, accessibility, in conjunction with usability, forms the basis for everything we plan, design, develop, commission, operate, maintain, evaluate, and decommission.
Article 3: Well-being
1) Well-being is a lasting inner state of a human resulting from the fulfillment of human’s physical and cognitive needs.
2) It is the responsibility of all providers of products, systems and services to safeguard human well-being by solutions and processes that ensure people feel physically and psychologically safe and are protected from harassment and manipulation.
3) People are given simple control over their data and have access to quick, easily accessible help so that incidents that affect the well-being can be resolved promptly.
Article 4: Impact on business
1) The human-centered approach increases customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby driving sustainable revenue growth.
2) User-centered research reduces development, support, and legal costs and makes your offerings more marketable.
3) People in companies who create safe, accessible, and respectful user experiences for their colleagues, customers and users to ensure long-term business success are recognized.
Article 5: Impact on economy
1) The human-centered approach is mandatorily integrated into innovation, industry, and digitalization programs to ensure that companies and public agencies systematically invest in human-centered development.
2) The economic contribution of the human-centered approach is measured and made transparent.
3) Solutions with high level of usability and accessibility reduce misuse, health consequences, and administrative burdens, which lowers government spending in the long term.
Article 6: Impact on ecosystem
1) The human-centered approach is inherently sustainable. As “state of the global system, including environmental, social and economic aspects, in which the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (ISO Guide 82), the human-centered approach is the basis to understand those needs and provide appropriate solutions.
2) The approach balances human needs with the needs of affected parties, which are stakeholders, organisms, systems, ecosystems, or environments that are affected or subject to change as a result of a human decision or activity.
3) Applying a human-centered approach improves human well-being by optimizing resource use, reducing environmental burdens, and strengthening long-term economic and social stability.
Article 7: Innovation
1) The human-centered approach is countering the failings of technology driven innovation by ensuring that innovations are meeting real problems of real users.
2) Needs-based solutions are more successful in the long term and foster productivity and a willingness to pursue further innovations.
3) The human-centered approach ensures the safety, well-being, and physical and mental health of the people who are the focus of innovation, thereby increasing trust and acceptance.
Article 8: Resilience
1) Complex tasks must be handled in a way that ensures they are error-tolerant, errorresistant, secure, and effective.
2) Systems, organizations and their processes must be suitable for the tasks, selfdescriptive, conformant to the expectations of its users, be learnable, be controllable, error robust and engaging.
3) The human-centered approach is iterative and transformative. It is applied throughout an organization, changes products, system, services, processes, and the organization itself, thus increasing resilience of the organization.
Article 9: The professional field
1) The human-centered approach is a distinct, comprehensive field with its own specific methods, procedures, approaches, activities, artifacts, and outcomes.
2) Professionals working in this field are organized or are encouraged to organize themselves in professional associations. These professional organizations shall be recognized as equal to other professional organizations by authorities.
3) Professionals working in the field of human-centered approach shall abide by the Professional Code of Conduct as published by the the Association for the International Accreditation of UX Professionals and Quality Assurance in the Professional Field of UX, Usability and Human-centered Design (IAPUX).
Article 10: Education
1) The human-centered approach is not limited to only one specific educational format.
2) Regardless of the type of education or the entity that is offering the educational program, the following topics shall be included in the program: terms and definitions according to ISO 9241 & ISO 27500, the context of use based on ISO 9241, Human-centered Design based on ISO 9241-210, relation to accessibility and to sustainability.
3) Education in the field of Human-centered approach is subject to qualitative assessment to ensure that requirements of (2) are met.
Article 11: International Standards
1) The human-centered approach is based on international standards.
2) These standards are the foundation for education, professional development and work as well as innovation and research.
3) They provide the mandatory terms and definitions for the professional work.
4) They provide reference in case of dispute resolution as well as in contractual and professional dispute.
Article 12: Accountability
1) The human-centered approach has an accountable person in an organization’s management.
2) Those who are accountable delegate responsibility for all activities in regard to the human-centered approach, including the work related to projects, to qualified professionals.
3) Those who are accountable shall ensure that those responsible for the human-centered approach are not compromised by other professional activities or even hindered by other parties.
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Definitions:
1 Human-centred quality: „extent to which requirements for usability, accessibility, user experience and avoidance of harm from use are met” [ISO 9241-11:2018]
2 Usability: „extent to which requirements for usability, accessibility, user experience and avoidance of harm from use are met” [ISO 9241-11:2018]
3 Accessibility: „extent to which requirements for usability, accessibility, user experience and avoidance of harm from use are met” [ISO 9241-11:2018]
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