• Archives of design research
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• v.18 no.1 s.59
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• pp.175-184
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• 2005

With the rapid progress of the aging society in Korea, the silver generation is emerging as another class of users in the new population structure. This is a social issue to be dealt with, and the effect of such a change is being observed dearly in the design area. In addition, there are increasing demands for consideration of minor groups of users including the elderly, the disabled, the left-handed, children and pregnant women and nursing mothers, who have been treated as the weak. Such a human-centered idea may be the manifestation of the recovery of humanity and the self-realization of human beings through experiences and reflections of the industrial society of the past. The present study examined the tendency of design standardization centering on universal design, which has emerged in response to user-centered social needs, and suggested general considerations for the necessity of introducing such standards. These days the meanings of standardization are not limited to quality, performance, safety and economic aspect. Standardization is required to consider the diversity and the welfare of human beings. In addition, one of the important functions of standardization is to provide designers with important clues and guidelines for designing. In reality, however, standardization has been rejected by the circle of design for the reason that it deters free creation, so research on the introduction of standardization has been at standstill. As ISO/IEC Guide71 was published in November 2001, based on which, the Korea Standards Association established KS A ISO/IEC Guide71 without changing its contents. In companies' manufacturing activities, the progress of standardization in connection to universal design is growing more important. However, usefulness and interchangeability for the absolute majority resulting from standardization are incomparable. Lastly, the realization of universal design requires human-centered design mind, based on users' experiences and needs, the characteristics of the human bodies and inconvenient elements rather than standards for the sake of standardization.