Zebra Stripes and Polka Dots
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 | Design, Uncategorized
Ok, no dots.
But anyone who’s ever worked with spreadsheets and tables has likely seen zebra stripes: where every other line is shaded to supposedly improve readability.
A List Apart published the results of a study in May that found that zebra stripes didn’t really help one way or the other. The problem with this study is that there wasn’t any pressure; there was no time limit, so participants had no trouble completing the easy questions.
This time around, a 15 second limit per question was imposed, and the tasks were harder (a bigger table, blank fields occasionally). In 3 of the 8 questions, zebra stripes had a “statisticaly significant” advantage.
User preference was also measured. 6 different versions of the same table was shown, and asked by participants to be ordered in terms of readability. Almost a third of participants selected the single-color, single-striped (traditional zebra striped) table as the most readable. Nearly another quarter said that the dual-color (green and gray) zebra striping was the best.
Personally, I would tend to go with the single-striped. I think the extra color distracts my eye a little to much. I would be interested to know what people think about a two-color striped table where the two colors are different shades of gray. I think that might be an acceptable compromise between the two.
I guess people just love their zebras.
Photo by Flickr user .imelda
Check out the original article here.
3 Comments to Zebra Stripes and Polka Dots
Being the type of person who, as the years progress, find myself wanting more of the black and white for average tables. With that I mean that I only need to read it and not modify it. When I am in the form and working with it (living document style) I find the need to shade as a way to show progress. I start with the all white and yes color cells to show the differnt status. When it is all green I know I’m done.
My 2 pennies
Yeah, definitely, if the green means something then definitely keep it. In this case though, the stripes are meant for readability purposes only, as a way to easily distinguish one line from the next.
I don’t really understand all that stuff about spreadsheets and all, but I did learn just yesterday that baby zebras have to memorize their mother’s stripe pattern to identify her! heehee!
Have a great day!
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September 9, 2008