DISPLAY COLOR CODING AND THE LEGIBILITY OF OVER PRINTED SYMBOLOGY,

Abstract

Six experimental subjects viewed a series of dis plays of overprinted colored numbers and in each case counted the occurrences of a particular tar get digit, which varied from trial to trial. Five degrees of symbol overprinting were used, for displays representing each of the 15 possible pairings of five symbol colors. Counting time and errors were interpreted as inverse measures of symbol legibility. Legibility decreased regu larly as degree of symbol overprinting was in creased: compared with conditions of no over printing, trials with full symbol overlap re quired twice as much counting time and resulted in five times as many counting errors. Inciden tal differences in legibility were noted among the particular number symbols used. Thes differ ences were small in comparison to those attribut able to the different colors. This suggests that color is potentially more influential than shape in determining the legibility of overprinted sym bology. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1963
Accession Number
AD0417278

Entities

People

  • Sharon L. Smith

Organizations

  • MITRE Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Coding
  • Color Coding
  • Notation
  • Symbols

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Mathematics or Statistics
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