Call-for-submission “The Effect of Usability Laws and Guidelines ”

Call for Submission to the
Special Issue on =E2=80=9CThe Effect of Usability Laws and Guidelines=E2=80=
=9D
of I-COM

Alternative Titles:
Usability by Law? What Regulation Can (and Cannot) Do for Human-Centered =
Design
Accessible by Law, Usable by Chance?

Since June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (together with its =
national implementations, such as the German =
Barrierefreiheitsst=C3=A4rkungsgesetz) requires a wide range of digital =
products and services to be accessible. And the EAA is not alone: =
consumer law treats digital services that do not work as expected as =
defective, data protection law demands that privacy settings be =
transparent and understandable, and the Digital Services Act bans =
manipulative interface design. Digital services, it seems, have never =
been more thoroughly regulated. So are they finally becoming usable? Not =
necessarily. Anyone who has stood in front of a ticket machine knows =
that a service can comply with every single regulation and still fail =
the person standing in front of it. Accessibility is mandated, contracts =
must be honored, dark patterns are banned; usability itself, however, =
remains largely a matter of good will rather than binding obligation. In =
our view, this points to a question that has received surprisingly =
little systematic attention: Is there a right to usability; and if not, =
do we need one?

Digital systems have been pervading our everyday lives for a long time. =
The very early systems often were initially developed by experts for =
special applications, to fly to the moon, to network banks =
internationally. Gradually, digital systems have become part of our =
everyday (professional) lives: digital documents for business =
correspondence, the goods management system of a logistics company, the =
checkout system for a retailer, the flight booking system for =
international airlines. With the enormous developments of the Internet =
and the World Wide Web, the availability of wireless communication and =
miniaturization, we have entered the digital age, a kind of digital gold =
rush. Everything is possible, everything is networked, everything is =
always accessible. In the past 20 years, digital systems have entered =
our lives everywhere: when we communicate, when we shop, when we travel, =
when we work, when we learn, and even when we play sports. In other =
words, everywhere.

Despite the long experience in developing interactive systems, in =
practice we still find many examples where IT user interfaces are =
developed without people in mind. These poorly designed systems can lead =
to many unexpected problems.

The research field Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is situated at the =
intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design, media =
studies, anthropology, and several other fields. The field focuses on =
the human side of interactions with computer systems so that we have the =
best possible experience when =E2=80=9Ccommunicating=E2=80=9D with =
machines. In addition to scientific results as nicely categorized by =
Wobbrock J. & Kientz J. (interactions 23, 3, 2016) there are results =
from the field aimed at practitioners, like the eight golden rules for =
successful Human-Computer interaction listed by Ben Shneiderman in his =
book =E2=80=9CDesigning the User Interface=E2=80=9D (first published in =
1987). The important sets of rules developed for decades in research and =
practice are not least anchored in inter/national standards, e.g. ISO =
9241-210:2019 (Ergonomics of human-system interaction=E2=80=93Part 210: =
Human-centered design of interactive systems (ISO 9241-210:2019); German =
version EN ISO 9241-210:2019)). The application of ISO standards for the =
design of interactive systems can nowadays be considered a standard =
procedure.

However, there are still many systems that fail usability. It can be =
stated that access to digital offerings is still in need of improvement. =
In our opinion, however, this is not so much due to a lack of methods, =
concepts or rules. It is more due to the fact that the development =
processes are not sufficiently oriented to the real everyday living or =
working practice of people. Practice- and user-oriented research must be =
given much more focus. This requires a better understanding of =
participatory and interdisciplinary approaches, and it needs more space =
and time for processes of understanding. More understanding is needed of =
how rules and regulations can be combined with suitable procedural =
methods to ultimately design IT products that provide users with =
positive support in their everyday life and work.

For this special issue of i-com our goal is to collect work from =
different disciplines on how usability guidelines and laws are used and =
built =E2=80=93 what laws there are and what we know about success and =
failure of applying them in practice =E2=80=93 findings about the Effect =
of Usability Laws and Guidelines. We both ask for full scientific papers =
(e.g. describing case studies) and short position statements (of just =
two or a few more pages) that contribute to the topic.

Topics to address in submissions can be (but are not limited to):

Overview of laws on usability =E2=80=93 and their effect on projects =E2=80=
=93 comparison between countries
(case) studies about the effect of laws on usability and accesibility on =
 and/or design(UX) practice guidelines
(case) studies about success or failure of applying UX to projects in =
praxis
How design teams work with rules (e.g. the role of laws, standards, =
guidelines in day-to-day UX practice)
HCI perspectives on dark patterns: What regulation can(not) capture
Testing, measuring and enforcing usability (compliance, auditing & =
certification)
Development of usability laws and guidelines
Comparative perspectives on usability regulation across countries
Studies on how UX is considered in different branches (e.g. public =
administration)
Studies on the Return on Investment of UX
Legal and interdisciplinary perspectives on a =E2=80=9Cright to =
usability=E2=80=9D


Guest Editors

Susanne Boll (Universit=C3=A4t Oldenburg)
Michael Koch (Universit=C3=A4t der Bundeswehr M=C3=BCnchen)
Simon Nestler (Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI))


Submission / Important Dates

The special issue will be distributed over two issues of i-com =E2=80=93 =
Issue 3 in Volume 25 (2026) and Issue 1 in Volume 26 (2027)

Submission Deadline: 1.10.2026 (for Volume 25) and 1.2.2027 (for Volume =
26)
Notification of acceptance for Volume 25: 15.10.2026
Submission of final Version for Volume 25: 15.11.2026

All submissions must be in English and should represent the original =
work of the authors with a length of 3.000-10.000 words. Substantially =
improved or extended versions of papers previously published in =
conference proceedings are welcome, provided that no copyright =
limitations exist.

For information about how to submit manuscripts, see =
https://i-com-journal.org/calls/ =E2=80=93 Regarding Article Processing =
Fees, the publisher is calling for published articles: We will provide =
waivers for the APC for articles published in this Special Issue if your =
institution does not have an APC agreement with the publisher.=

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