Abstract: Highlighting is used to attract attention to displayed information. Prior work has called into question the efficacy reverse video as a highlighting method in alphanumeric displays. Brightness is highly recommended in guideline documents, but no empirical study of its efficacy in alphanumeric displays has been published. An experiment was conducted to investigate the efficacy of these methods in monochromatic, alphanumeric displays. Search time was significantly faster for reverse video than for high intensity highlighting. Reverse video may attract attention better than high intensity video. Heavy use of reverse video may aid in the systematic search of unhighlighted items. The results are analyzed in terms of a mathematical model.

Keywords: CRT; Coding, brightness; Coding, reverse video; Design; Display format; Empirical studies; Highlighting; Monochrome; Screen output; VDT/VDU; Visual search

Originally published: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 33rd Annual Meeting, 1989, pp. 370-374

Republished: G. Perlman, G. K. Green, & M. S. Wogalter (Eds.) Human Factors Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction: Selections from Proceedings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meetings, 1983-1994, Santa Monica, CA: HFES, 1995, pp. 177-181.