Influence of highlighting, columns, and font size on visual search performance with respect to on-screen Chinese characters.

The effects of highlighting conditions were investigated with respect to performance in visual search of on-screen Chinese characters. Five highlighting conditions were used: boldface, underline, character border, italic, and shadow. The text tested was shown in 10-point and 12-point font size and was arranged in two ways, as single and double columns. Analysis of the results showed that the fastest and most accurate searches were performed with bold highlighting and that text arranged in a double column was searched more quickly than text arranged in a single column but that it generated more errors. Analysis also found that 12-point text was faster to search than 10-point text but generated more errors. These findings have implications when text for searches is used in graphical user interfaces.