This project assessed the suitability of popular colors for operating graphics (i.e., is gray-scale the right choice?)
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) conducted follow-on projected started by Pacific Sciences and Engineering. Students underwent a study evaluating three background colors and two foreground types with different levels of glare. Search time improved with increasing color differences. Mid-grey (127, 127, 127) was best, as it provides the greatest difference from the most colors. The next phase will be to introduce alternate foreground palettes for evaluation.
The overall objective of the Operator Display Color Background project is to improve the understanding of principles involved in selecting display panel color palettes to increase operator effectiveness. To meet this objective, PoCS personnel will identify color palettes to include in perceptual experimentation, finalize the experimental design, conduct the experiment, and deliver a report that summarizes the findings and provides guidance to users on how to apply the results to operator environments.
The primary research question is:
How does the visual contrast of the display elements with the background affect visibility and operator effectiveness, and how is are these affected by illumination level and glare?
To address this high-level question, we propose the development and execution of a display-based experiment varying the displayed elements, background colors, illumination level, and illumination geometry. We will simplify operator effectiveness to tasks including identifying and sorting displayed information, rather than more complex tasks such as situation awareness, diagnosing problems, or simulating system operation. Sub-questions to be considered include:
• How does the luminance ratio of the background to the display surround and environmental illumination affect visibility and color appearance as illumination and glare conditions vary?
• How does the illumination color affect usability of the display?
• Which background colors provide the largest set of easily discriminable colors?
• Effects of display size / viewing distance will also be explored.
• Are there color schemes with a fixed background color that could suffice across all ambient lighting conditions?
• Are there color schemes that will minimize the impact of color vision deficiencies without detrimentally impacting the usability of an operator display for color normal operators?
Displaying information effectively to operators is important for smooth, stable operations. Selecting the background color and color contrast of foreground objects on displays is a key component for effectively presenting information. The selection of color schemes can make the difference between operators rapidly recognizing and interpreting information on the display and failing to efficiently detect important indicators, which, if missed, can result in off-spec product, unscheduled downtime, equipment damage, or worse. Research investigating the effects of background color on human performance has been conducted for many years, but important questions remain unanswered. For instance, the effects of ambient lighting conditions are often neglected when selecting display background and foreground color palette. In addition, with process control applications becoming more mobile and being used on the production floor or in the external plant where lighting conditions can be highly variable, there is a pressing need for robust color display design
The main deliverable of this project is a final report that summarizes the experimental findings and provides guidance to users on how to apply the results to operator environments.