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Do Zebra Stripes Actually Help?
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."
Finding data in nine columns with alternating text and numbers is easy. Try upping the number of columns, using only numbers, use close spacing, and reduce the text size. Then you will see a difference. This experiment is flawed because they didn't test how the values scale with more columns and less helpful clues (like the differences between text and spacing in their sample table). This article should have been rejected for not taking into account these issues.
is irrelevant.
Personally, I think that they are done best when striped in sets of three, makes following the line even easier. But that's not my point. Apparently the article says that it offers only minor improvements in accuracy and speed. That's not a wash, that's a minor improvement. Considering the virtually no effort to achieve the minor improvement, I'd call that a significant benefit.
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.
Still, a slight improvement is still an improvement.
Isn't an improvement in accuracy is better than no improvement, or a decrease?
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"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
it's called green bar paper, and it's still used, young jedi.
I see a problem with the experiment. The hard part of the questions involves scanning down a column , where horizontal striping obviously does not help.
It seems that way, doesn't it?
Zebra striping becomes more useful the further apart the key row is from the data in the row. It also becomes more important if there are no lines between the rows and columns. It's practically essential when you're trying to view a wide table where the key must be scrolled off screen to view the pertinent data.
In this study, the key row was the tolerance in grams, and the data was the factory outlet boolean. They were an inch and a half apart from each other, and there was no necessity to interpret multiple values in a row, but only vertically scan the key column and test for the existence of a row that has yes in the factory outlet column right next to it.
These people are spreading misinformation. The study was so contrived to support the premise, and so consciously avoidant of the actual situations where zebra striping becomes useful, that it's difficult to believe it wasn't intentionally done. If nothing else, there was far, far too little study done to make any conclusion whatsoever.
Whoever is behind article this should be working at MacDonalds.
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