A study of operators’ computing efficiency with special focus on the readability under different viewing angles of a desktop

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to determine the reading performance of operators’ under different viewing angles of a desktop computer. The effects of text/background color, viewing distance and character size on the speed of reading were investigated. The text and/or the background color combination were varied, with constant luminance contrast. Performance was recorded in terms of words per minutes. Standard workplace design recommendations to position center of visual display terminal 15° and 40°, below horizontal eye level, were taken up for a visually intensive readability task. An orthogonal array, signal-to-noise ratio and the analysis of variance were carried out to investigate the above mentioned operating parameters to determine optimum readability performance. The results suggested that performance was better at 15° viewing angle as compared to 40°.