Aerospace Medicine Technical Reports
FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-07/24
Title and Subtitle: Investigating the Use of Color in Timeline Displays
Report Date: August 2007
Authors: Cummings ML, Tsonsis C, Xing J
Abstract: The use of color-coding in human supervisory control displays such as those found in air traffic control is a design intervention meant to mitigate task complexity and reduce mental workload. Color has been shown to aid operators in search and organization tasks; however, it can also cause cognitive tunneling and add to task complexity.
This paper details the results from an experiment designed to evaluate increasing color categories in an attempt to objectively measure how the use of color in air traffic control-related displays affects performance. Results showed that the use of six color categories, as compared to three, significantly improved subjects’ accuracy in performing search and problem-solving tasks. However, beyond six color categories, performance accuracy was not significantly aided and was possibly degraded. In addition, errors of omission significantly increased when the number of color categories increased from six to nine.
This study demonstrated that, especially under high workloads, color categorization beyond six groupings added to overall task complexity as a function of workload, even more than an environmental complexity factor that depends on task requirements.
Key Words: Color, Air Traffic Management, Complexity, Timeline, Displays
No. of Pages: 17
