Visual Search Techniques and Performance in Electronic Map Display

The appropriate visual search techniques and visual display methods lead to the most effective and quickest way of extracting information during visual search tasks. Visual search time and performance in visual display terminals can be influenced by various parameters, such as an amount of the clutter objects and the screen size. This paper investigated the visual search techniques and performance using radar interface with different symbols that vary in color and features. Thirty-six subjects participated in the study and experiments were performed on separate monitors whose screen size is 7, 15 and 21 in., the visual angles are experimentally set to be 45; 55; 65; 75 and 85 min of arc. This article took into considerations various performance variables such as completion time, fixation duration etc. to complete the visual search investigation. It was confirmed that the accuracy is highly affected by many clutter objects in the region surrounding a target.