Do Zebra Stripes Actually Help? 234
RyoShin writes "A List Apart, an excellent resource for web development and related aesthetics, has put together an article based on original research by Jessica Enders into 'zebra striping.' From the article: 'Zebra striping [coloring alternate rows] is used when data is presented in an essentially tabular form. The user of that table will be looking for one or more data points. Their aim is to get the right points and get them as quickly as possible. Therefore, if we set a task that uses a table, and zebra striping does make things easier, then we would expect to see improvements in two things: accuracy and speed.' The conclusion of the peer reviewed paper? It's a wash. Striped tables offered only a slight increase in accuracy and speed overall. The article notes a few other benefits to using Zebra striping, so it's all up to the individual."
It looks nice (Score:3, Interesting)
Coloring every 3rd or 5th row helps too (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyone else remember fanfold wide-format computer paper that was colored white and green in alternating blocks of 3 rows each?
Bad example (Score:5, Interesting)
Possible alternative? (Score:4, Interesting)
sloth jr
Re:Coloring every 3rd or 5th row helps too (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yes and No. (Score:1, Interesting)
Helps a LOT if you have Nystagmus (Score:5, Interesting)
BTW, a wider font like Verdana is also highly recommended.
Re:It looks nice (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, if the table gets really big, and it's difficult to identify where you are in the table, I start alternating between sets of 5 and sets of three - usually 5/5/3. Again, this seems to help (At least it helps me) with visual placement.
IIRC I first saw this in the AD&D manuals, except they always alternated 1/3 or 3/5 on single-page tables, which made it visually confusing, again.
Re:Maybe not faster but more Aesthetically Pleasin (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm no GUI designer, but when I make utility web pages that use tables, I tend to use either zebra striping or a tr:hover that uses a light yellow to highlight the line under the mouse pointer. That way, if I feel I need the help to track through the table, I just run the mouse down the columns and it lines up the current row for me very nicely. IMHO, this is a nice compromise where zebra striping might not look good, but the user might want the help nonetheless.
Seriously flawed, but great stufy (Score:2, Interesting)
When the participants violate the very precepts of the study by creating their own striping, the study become ridiculous. It's like doing a study if walking is slower than biking, and the walkers are allowed to bring their own bikes.
But the study itself is great, I just disagree with the conclusion, it seems to show that striping is SO useful that when denied striping, people create their own.
Follow-up Survey (Score:3, Interesting)
You can find it at http://surveys.formulate.com.au/dtfu [formulate.com.au]. It takes about three-five minutes. I just took it, and they appear to be using darker row colors now. It's still too narrow to see how useful it is when you have to scroll horizontally, but it's a small improvement at least.
Re:you suckz0rz! (just kidding) (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, I can never move to Texas. The rest of the country has vertical traffic lights, but not Texas. It is bad enough to choose red and green as the stop and go colors, with the full knowledge that a large percentage of the population can't see them - it is a travesty to take that and put it on its side so that up vs down cannot be used.
And before you get to the left vs right, some of us are dyslexic...