Standards mapping
The premium reference. It maps every design decision in the token system and component library to the public standard or human-factors principle it is designed against, so a buyer’s design authority / human-factors engineer can slot the kit into their own program.
How to read this
Section titled “How to read this”Each mapping is: Decision → Standard & principle → How we apply it → Where (token/component) → Verify (what your team should confirm against your program).
Disclaimer (read first)
Section titled “Disclaimer (read first)”- The kit is designed against the guidelines below. It is not certified, compliant, or approved under any of them — certification is a formal program we do not claim or grant.
- Standards are revised. Confirm exact clause numbers and values against the current published revision for your program (e.g. MIL-STD-2525D / NATO APP-6(D)/(E), the latest MIL-STD-1472, MIL-STD-3009) before relying on this for any formal acceptance.
- Not affiliated with or endorsed by any government or defense agency, NATO, Figma, Palantir, or Anduril.
Standards referenced
Section titled “Standards referenced”| Standard | Scope | What we apply |
|---|---|---|
| MIL-STD-2525 / NATO APP-6 | Joint military symbology | Affiliation color + frame-shape coding; shape/color redundancy |
| MIL-STD-1472 | Human engineering (human factors) | Control sizing, legibility, coding redundancy, clutter |
| MIL-STD-3009 | NVIS (night-vision) lighting | Night-NVG palette: reduced blue, green-biased |
| APCA | Perceptual contrast (WCAG 3 candidate) | Contrast validation on dark/operator displays |
| WCAG 2.1 AA | Accessibility baseline | Keyboard, focus, name/role/value, reduced motion |
| ISO 9241 | Ergonomics of human-system interaction | Dialogue principles, clutter/hierarchy |
Mappings
Section titled “Mappings”M1 — Affiliation coding (the threat system)
Section titled “M1 — Affiliation coding (the threat system)”Standard: MIL-STD-2525 / APP-6. Reserved affiliation colors — friend = cyan/blue,
hostile = red, neutral = green, unknown = yellow — and frame shapes — friend = rectangle,
hostile = diamond, neutral = square, unknown = quatrefoil.
How we apply: StatusIndicator threat shapes map 1:1 — hostile=diamond, friendly=rectangle,
neutral=square, unknown=quatrefoil — paired with semantic/color/threat/* tokens in the matching
affiliation colors.
Where: StatusIndicator, semantic/color/threat/{hostile,friendly,neutral,unknown}, semantic/cue/threat-*.
Verify: confirm exact RGB/HSL against the 2525 color appendix for your display luminance;
confirm contacts with no affiliation default to unknown (yellow), never friend (a documented
safety rule), and wire that default into your data pipeline.
M2 — Redundant coding (“never rely on color alone”) — the backbone
Section titled “M2 — Redundant coding (“never rely on color alone”) — the backbone”Standard: MIL-STD-2525/APP-6 and MIL-STD-1472 coding principles. Shape and color are
deliberately redundant so the picture survives degraded conditions — explicitly including a
monochrome display used to preserve night vision.
How we apply: every threat/status state carries color plus a second channel — shape
(StatusIndicator), glyph + priority rank (Alert), text label (PTTIndicator, MissionBanner), or
active-segment count (SignalReticle). The Mono theme strips all color; the cue channel persists.
Where: all status/threat components; semantic/cue/* tokens; Mono mode.
Verify: in Mono, confirm an operator can read affiliation/status by shape/glyph/text alone.
This is the kit’s central guarantee and the one to test hardest.
M3 — Night / NVG mode
Section titled “M3 — Night / NVG mode”Standard: MIL-STD-3009 (NVIS lighting). Night displays must limit energy in the bands that
bloom night-vision goggles; palettes are green-biased with reduced blue.
How we apply: the Night-NVG mode shifts grounds to low-blue near-black, biases text to a
green channel, and lowers accent luminance while holding contrast.
Where: Night-NVG mode in semantic collection; tokens.night.css.
Verify: measure against your NVIS class (A vs B) requirements and validate with actual goggles
in the loop — token values are a designed starting point, not a measured NVIS certification.
M4 — Contrast & legibility
Section titled “M4 — Contrast & legibility”Standard: APCA perceptual contrast (chosen over WCAG-2 ratios for accuracy on dark UIs);
MIL-STD-1472 character legibility at operational viewing distance.
How we apply: color pairs validated on APCA; a contrast report ships with the tokens; type scale
sized for arm’s-length legibility on small displays; day mode tuned for sunlight readability.
Where: Session-1 contrast report; primitive/font/size-*; day/night modes.
Verify: validate against your display’s peak luminance and ambient range (sunlight-readable by
day, dimmable for night) and your defined viewing distance.
M5 — Control sizing & touch targets (gloved)
Section titled “M5 — Control sizing & touch targets (gloved)”Standard: MIL-STD-1472 control dimensions and separation; targets enlarged for gloved operation.
How we apply: a dedicated touch-gloved size token (48px) above the standard touch minimum, plus
three control sizes (24/30/40) and a 4px spacing scale for consistent separation.
Where: primitive/size/touch-gloved, primitive/size/control-*, primitive/space/*.
Verify: convert the px tokens to physical mm for your display DPI and confirm against your
glove type; the standard specifies physical dimensions, not pixels.
M6 — Symbol / icon size
Section titled “M6 — Symbol / icon size”Standard: MIL-STD-2525 human-factors testing found operators preferred medium (~24×24 px)
symbols, with size having little impact on legibility across the tested range.
How we apply: a fixed 24×24 icon frame standard across the kit.
Where: primitive/size/icon-*; icon frame convention.
M7 — Information density & clutter
Section titled “M7 — Information density & clutter”Standard: MIL-STD-1472 / ISO 9241 — manage clutter, group related data, establish hierarchy. How we apply: dense-but-ordered grids, hairline separation rather than heavy containers, status at screen edges, the map/COP as the hero canvas, chrome held neutral so data carries salience. Where: OverlayPanel, MissionBanner, Table; the art-direction layout rules.
M8 — Interaction & accessibility
Section titled “M8 — Interaction & accessibility”Standard: WCAG 2.1 AA (2.1.1 keyboard, 2.4.7 focus visible, 4.1.2 name/role/value, 2.3.3 motion);
ISO 9241 dialogue principles (suitability, error tolerance, controllability).
How we apply: ARIA wiring throughout, focus-visible rings, correct aria-live politeness
(assertive for critical, polite otherwise), reduced-motion handling, keyboard-operable controls.
Where: every interactive component; verified by the 21-test suite.
Verify: run your own AT pass for the assistive technologies your program supports.
M9 — Reserved-color discipline (honest design caveat)
Section titled “M9 — Reserved-color discipline (honest design caveat)”Standard: MIL-STD-2525 reserves the four affiliation colors — they must not be reused for status,
severity, or other channels, because reusing (e.g.) red degrades affiliation reading speed.
Design decision: the base kit shares red between threat/hostile and status/critical for
economy in mixed dashboards. For strict 2525/COP environments, separate the channels — keep the
affiliation colors exclusive to affiliation and give status/severity a distinct non-affiliation cue.
Where: documented as a configuration choice; status tokens can be remapped off the affiliation hues.
Verify: decide per deployment whether your display is a true tactical COP (separate channels) or a
general operator dashboard (shared is acceptable). This is a deliberate, documented trade-off.
M10 — RTL / bilingual tactical data
Section titled “M10 — RTL / bilingual tactical data”Standard: not a defense symbology standard, but Unicode bidirectional handling plus the
operational convention of Western digits for tactical data in Arabic-context UIs.
How we apply: CSS logical properties throughout; coordinates/grid values isolated LTR via
<bdi dir="ltr"> so digits never bidi-reorder; Western digits for tactical readouts.
Where: CoordReadout; all components via logical properties.
Verify: confirm against your locale and operator language requirements.
Verification checklist (for your design authority)
Section titled “Verification checklist (for your design authority)”- Affiliation colors/shapes confirmed against current 2525/APP-6 revision for our display.
- Unknown-default (never friend) enforced in the data pipeline.
- Mono read-test passed: affiliation/status legible by shape/glyph/text with color removed.
- Night-NVG palette measured against our NVIS class with goggles in the loop.
- Contrast validated against our display luminance + ambient range.
- Touch/control sizes converted to physical mm for our DPI + glove type.
- Affiliation vs status color channels decided per deployment (M9).
- Accessibility pass run for our supported assistive technologies.
- RTL/digit handling confirmed for our operator locale.
Standards revision table (populate before publishing/selling)
Section titled “Standards revision table (populate before publishing/selling)”| Standard | Revision used | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIL-STD-2525 / APP-6 | affiliation color + shape source | ||
| MIL-STD-1472 | sizing, legibility, coding | ||
| MIL-STD-3009 | NVIS class A/B | ||
| APCA | contrast model version | ||
| WCAG | 2.1 AA | accessibility baseline | |
| ISO 9241 | relevant parts |
Glossary
Section titled “Glossary”- Affiliation — friend / hostile / neutral / unknown identity of a track.
- COP — common operational picture; the shared map/canvas.
- NVIS — night-vision imaging system; NVG-compatible lighting.
- Redundant coding — encoding the same meaning in two channels (e.g. color + shape) so it survives loss of one.
- Reserved colors — the four affiliation colors, not to be reused for other meaning.
This document is the premium tier’s core value: it sells the reasoning, not just the pixels. Keep it accurate and current — its credibility is the product’s credibility.