Effect of Color Combination on Graphical Symbol Visual Search Efficiency

Color coding is a very efficient method for presenting information in the design of human-computer interaction interface. In order to further enhance the search efficiency of graphical symbols, a visual search experiment had been arranged to mainly investigate how the color quantity and the consistency of the distracters’ colors will affect the reaction time. The results show that the increase of color quantity in graphical symbols will reduce the visual search efficiency on some level. However, use color to enlarge the difference between graphical symbols will increase the visual search efficiency to a greater extent.