Improving searching and reading performance: the effect of highlighting and text color coding

A message presentation and processing model is presented here. It was used, in two experiments, to study how different types of highlighting and text display color combinations affect reading performance. We found that highlighting can significantly improve table searching and that the best highlighting method was color, followed by reverse video and blinking. When different color combinations were used for textual display, the reading speed was higher but the visual preference was lower for situations in which the foreground luminance was lower than the background luminance or the foreground chroma was lower than the background chroma. Hue combinations also affected both visual preference and reading speed, but did not override the dominant impacts of luminance and chroma contrast. The color impact on visual preference was not consistent with its impact on reading speed. Based on these findings, design guidelines are proposed.