The future of telecommunications is at a very uncertain stage: how will information be delivered, with what hardware, and who will manage delivery and content? One thing is certain: the survival of new communication technologies will depend in part on user-friendly interfaces. In whatever form services arrive at the house, their interfaces will need to be uniform and easy to use. The first part of the paper chronicles cases of corporate investment in user-friendly design and summarizes arguments in the popular and academic literature about good interface design. The question of whether an interface is "standardizable" is addressed in part 2, including discussions of the possibility of standardizing at the point of delivery for a system that might be pluralistic or multiplatform, and of possible guidelines for standardizing an interface. Part 3 puts forward several models for creating such a standardized interface--a government model, a private industry/free market model, and a professional association model--and arrives at qualities needed in an optimal model. (Contains 45 references.) (Author/BEW)