User interface standards can be hard to use for developers. In a laboratory experiment, 26 students achieved only 71 % compliance with a two page standard; many violations were due to influence from previous experience with nonstandard systems. In a study of a real company's standard, developers were only able to find 4 of 12 actual deviations in a sample system, and three real products broke between 7 and 12 of the 22 mandatory rules in the standard. Designers were found to rely heavily on the examples in the standard and their experience with other user interfaces.
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Thovtrup et al. (1991) studied this question.
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