Researcher
Research institution
Champion
Focus team
Topic
Project status
Year ended
2018
Project ID
201806
Why should I care about this project?

Does alarm color matter?  This study tested if non-unique alarm colors make alarms harder to find on console graphics.

Abstract

Senior design project for students from Wright State University examined the impact of non-unique color code on performance under time constraint. This was a variation on previous study that showed longer time to detect alarms when red was used to indicate equipment status as well as alarm states. Accuracy in detecting alarms was significantly poorer in the non-unique condition than the unique condition.

Objective

The purpose of this study to determine if non-unique color-coding has an impact on performance given a time constraint. This study was done by assessing participants’ ability to find required targets in a visual search task. It is hypothesized that a person’s performance will decrease as time decreases.

Driving questions

How are accuracy and speed impacted when the color red has two different meanings (i.e. warning and machine status)?

Deliverables

Final report detailing findings.