Zebra Striping: Does it Really Help?

Jessica Enders challenges the notion that “zebra striping”, that is applying faint shading to alternative lines of text or information, assists in better comprehending multiple rows of data, especially online.

Her research revealed there was a 4 per cent difference in comprehension error rates when reading zebra striped data against non zebra striped information.

Many believe that zebra stripes aid the reader by guiding the eye along the row. However, despite being in use in both paper and electronic mediums for almost half a century, there is practically no evidence that it actually assists users in this way. In June and July 2007, I conducted an extensive review of sources such as the International Association of Paper Historians, the Business and Forms Management Association, and the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, but found absolutely no information on the origins of or rationale behind zebra striping.

Zebra striping becomes an issue on websites as it can be a lot of effort to bring about (and to be honest it’s something I’ve not actually tried to do myself).

This in-depth article is certainly required reading for anyone considering incorporating such presentation into their web projects.