Icon flickering, flicker rate, and color combinations of an icon's symbol/background in visual search performance.

Full Abstract

The effects of color combinations of an icon's symbol/background and components of flicker and flicker rate on visual search performance on a liquid crystal display screen were investigated with 39 subjects who searched for a target icon in a circular stimulus array (diameter = 20 cm) including one target and 19 distractors. Analysis showed that the icon's symbol/background color significantly affected search time. The search times for icons with black/red and white/blue were significantly shorter than for white/yellow, black/yellow, and black/blue. Flickering of different components of the icon significantly affected the search time. Search time for an icon's border flickering was shorter than for an icon symbol flickering; search for flicker rates of 3 and 5 Hz was shorter than that for 1 Hz. For icon's symbol/background color combinations, search error rate for black/blue was greater than for black/red and white/blue combinations, and the error rate for an icon's border flickering was lower than for an icon's symbol flickering. Interactions affected search time and error rate. Results are applicable to design of graphic user interfaces.

Author information

Author/s: Huang, Kuo-Chen (KC); Chiang, Shu-Ying (SY); Chen, Chen-Fu (CF);

Affiliation: Department of Product Design, Ming Chuan University. kuochen(-atsign-)mcu.edu.tw

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Perceptual and motor skills (Percept Mot Skills), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Feb; vol 106 (issue 1) : pp 117-27

Dates: Created 2008/05/07; Completed 2008/06/11;

PMID: 18459362, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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