Brian Low » Zebra striping

Fri Nov 7 2008	Zebra striping
	From the article Zebra Striping: Does it Really Help?: - no difference in speed or accuracy - 46% preferred it, 33% didn’t care If you are going to use zebra striping, keep it subtle. Update: a followup post with more research confirming this approach. Comment on this post (1 comment)

DMChu November 11th, 2008 10:47 pm

I hadn’t realized there was no data to back up why we do this. It’s always seemed like a nicer alternative to actually showing the gridlines for a table in a presentation. And despite the author’s findings, I still find it helps me guide my eyes along each row. (I used to place rulers on my science papers where they don’t use zebra striping.)

But I definitely agree, keep it subtle. Making the differences between lines too (for lack of a better word) different can make any table ugly and hard to read.