Well, standards tend to be pretty local. Which side of the road one drives on. Or napkin usage. Of course, if you don’t understand the local standards, they don’t provide comfort. So cross-cultural understanding is part of what makes the world more livable.

The standardization across borders is certainly something we’re seeing more of. I don’t know that Nokia has yet to define as much as they could, but Wii, the iPhone, and Microsoft have certainly dictated a lot of stuff – from design to gestural movements, to functionality (Microsoft has pretty much become the default model for desktop app help).

Moving away from a standard makes sense when you see a clear path to innovation (i.e. solving a problem). But this only applies when the “standard” is closely related to a “best practice”. Which side of the road we drive on is not something likely to change in the near future. But in the world of computing, we’ve seen many changes the past 30 years. For about 13 years, DOS was a standard for PCs. But it was supplanted by Windows. And Windows will eventually be supplanted, too.

Finally, as we both log a helluva lot of air miles each year, what can we (as UX designers) do to help make travel more secure?

Cheers,
Eric

Also are some standards becoming more global due to the sameness of products being purchased around the globe? For example, Wii, iPhone, Nokia etc When does moving away from a standard make sense towards a specific design nuance?

Your example of airport security is spot on, leaving the world traveler feeling both miffed and not secure.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by gpowelldesign: Standardization in a cross-border world http://bit.ly/a053B8...