Designing interfaces for faster information processing: Experimental studies of color and location as information cues in customer support and emergency response systems

One of the problems studied in human-computer interaction (HCI) research is the design of interfaces to improve user information selection and processing performance. Based on prior research findings this study proposes that information selection performance can be improved by using supplementary cues to encode information in interface design. The research is motivated by cue-summation theory and research findings on parallel and associative processing. Color and information location are proposed as relevant, supplementary cues that can improve processing performance by enhancing reliance on faster parallel, and automatic associative processing. This dissertation describes a set of laboratory experiments in which both color and information location are employed as supplementary cues in two different contexts. The first study explores the use of these cues in a customer account management application and the results suggest that color and location cues significantly improve information selection and processing speed, along with user satisfaction, with the best results obtained when both cues are used. The results of the second study, conducted in an emergency response setting, support these findings and elaborate on the conditions under which the use of these cues is the most effective. The studies suggest that the use of these cues becomes more beneficial as time pressure and complexity increase, as both color-coding and location-ordering are capable of decreasing the detrimental effects these task characteristics create. Based on the results of these studies, it is proposed that supplementary cues should always be considered in interface design and that managers making adoption decisions should be cognizant of these design considerations. Implications and suggested future directions are also reviewed.