Visual attention and display design

Human operators in aviation, process control and other high-stress domains must monitor constantly for warnings and alerts among a rush of visual stimulation. More prosaically, website visitors and software users scan their computer screens for interesting or useful information among icons, online advertisements and other visual clutter. In all of these cases, performance hinges on the effective functioning of visual selective attention to find and extract useful information from the visual environment (Eriksen & Hoffman, 1973; Posner, 1980). At their best, failures of visual attention cause slowdowns and annoyances. At their worst, they cost lives and property. Well-designed displays that allow the viewer to readily find and extract the information required for the task at hand are crucial for efficient and safe performance of complex human-machine systems (Johnson & Proctor, 2004; Moray, 1993; Wickens & Holland, 2000; Wickens & McCarley, 2008).