Colour coding with visual layers can provide performance enhancements in control room displays

Twenty four people completed search and comparing tasks employing control room like trend displays which had been colour coded using three different methods. The monochrome coding method displayed the information in black and white only, the non-layered colour method contained colours chosen for their high perceptual discriminability. The visual layer method contained colours which grouped information into a perceptual hierarchy, causing more important information to appear emphasised and nearer to the viewer. The visual layers methodology produced significantly faster search and comparing times than the other two coding methods which did not differ significantly from each other. There were no significant differences between the colour coding methods in the number of errors made. A 14 item questionnaire found that the display coded using the visual layers method was significantly preferred over the other methods.