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Do Zebra Stripes Actually Help?

Posted by timothy on from the they-seem-to-help-the-zebras dept.

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."

10 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Do Zebra Stripes Actually Help? by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, much in the same way that Go Faster Stripes work...

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    Summation 2
    1. Re:Do Zebra Stripes Actually Help? by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

      The other option is Red. Red is always faster.

      The now extinct Red Go Faster Striped Zebras easily outran cheetahs. They didn't actually go extinct; they just migrated so fast, time stopped for them.

    2. Re:Do Zebra Stripes Actually Help? by Palshife · · Score: 4, Funny

      green on white, and therefor invisible to me... Good God, how do you read Slashdot?!
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      Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
  2. That was useful by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 4, Funny

    Study conducted of whether long-held belief has real benefits. Conclusion: Maybe a little.

    News at 11.

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    Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
  3. I love it by krog · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's why I still print out web pages on greenbar before reading them.

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    Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
  4. Re:Coloring every 3rd or 5th row helps too by rubycodez · · Score: 5, Funny

    it's called green bar paper, and it's still used, young jedi.

  5. Re:Of Course Zebra Stripes Help! by stoofa · · Score: 3, Funny

    They also help the pack slice their dinner up fairly. For very lazy lions there are now even zebras with perforated easy-claw edges down every third black stripe.

  6. Re:And now .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "And now, the first Stripeless Zebra" from Bob's Circus, Bob and Tom show.

    Otherwise known as a "horse."
  7. Zuba's!!! by joe$007 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The stripes helped my Zuba's look cool.

  8. Re:It looks nice by redxxx · · Score: 5, Funny

    But they still expend more effort on a owerty keyboard than on a dvorak one -- simply put, their fingers travel farther. They have fewer typos with the word Qwerty though.