Decision quality as a measure of visual display effectiveness.

A new gaming technique was employed in an attempt to evaluate more accurately the effectiveness of visual displays. 18 male university students acted as traffic managers for a hypothetical trucking concern. Trucking information was presented in map-plus-overlay displays, and Ss manipulated trucks, drivers, and loads within the framework of the economic rules governing the trucking operation. A computer program was written which determined the profit in dollars of each S's performance. 3 independent variables—use of color, fact density, and compression (ratio of symbols to facts)—were used in this repeated measures design. Analysis of variance indicated that profit was a positive function of increasing fact density (p