National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO/IEC 4933:2026.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee ICT/2, ICT Accessibility.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 28 February 2026.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).

ISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO and IEC take no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO and IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents and https://patents.iec.ch. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html. In the IEC, see www.iec.ch/understanding-standards.

This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittee SC 35, User interfaces.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and www.iec.ch/national-committees.

Introduction

User interfaces are an essential medium for information transmission between human and machines. It is a basic need to realize natural and efficient input interaction experience on the user interfaces.

With more and more smart devices entering and being distributed in people's daily life, user interfaces are widely used and collaborated between smart phones, tablets, desktop computers, smart watches, televisions, in-vehicle systems, virtual and augmented reality, and other information and communications technology systems.

The main purpose of uniformly converting the input actions across different input devices is to reduce the workload of designers and developers of systems and software applications, and to ensure the consistency of user input experience in cross-device scenarios.

With various smart devices, the industry has been researching and developing user interface technologies that support multiple input methods to improve cross-device input experiences. At present, research and development on the automatic conversion of input actions on the cross-devices has entered the practice and implementation level.

A standardized framework of input action unification module can be used to support the implementation of operations across device user interfaces and promote the development of cross-device software applications technology and industry.

1 Scope

This document specifies a unification module for input actions, including its framework, requirements and recommendations, for consistently accessing the operations across multiple types of devices. This document recognizes the input actions as user behaviours that are commonly used to manipulate system or application operations (functions) through user interfaces. It also identifies the need and use cases of unifying input actions across devices.

This document does not specify parameter settings and details of the input actions. This document is applicable to all types of organizations.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms related to actions

3.2 Terms related to devices

3.3 Terms related to systems

4 Background to unifying input actions across devices

4.1 Overview of input action, input device and interaction with user interface

4.2 Physical input actions

4.3 Logical input actions

4.4 Physical and logical input actions for ICT device connections

5 Need for unifying input actions

5.1 Overview

5.2 Device-specific input actions on user interfaces

5.3 Unifying input actions on user interfaces

6 Use cases of unifying input actions across devices

6.1 A simple closed system

6.2 A system with attached peripheral devices

6.3 Two systems interacting with one another

6.4 More complicated configurations

7 Framework of unification module for input actions

8 Requirements and recommendations

8.1 Functional requirements and recommendations

8.2 Additional requirements and recommendations

Bibliography

BS ISO/IEC 4933:2026

Information technology. User interfaces. Unifying input actions across devices

Current

Published:

28 Feb 2026