Review of visual clutter and its effects on pilot performance: New look at past research

Display Clutter

“…As a result, imaging algorithms cannot assess or predict, with certainty, what the attentional or performance effects of a particular display design will be. Clutter-imaging algorithms will provide the same measure of clutter regardless of the operator and the task being performed, although task and context are critical in determining the effects of clutter on attention and performance (Doyon-Poulin et al, 2012). Other measures are therefore needed to complement image processing and provide insight into the performance and attentional costs of clutter.…”

“…Although high display density is the most commonly adopted view of clutter, it may not always be possible to clearly enumerate or delineate individual entities within an image or display, as is implied in the concept of set size, and therefore definitions of this kind typically have applicability only within a particular domain. This view is also somewhat oversimplified and incomplete; increasing the number or density of objects may increase clutter, but other factors, such as the layout or arrangement of these items, may mitigate the effects of density (Doyon-Poulin, Robert, & Ouellette, 2012).…”

“…In this category, poor display organization, structure, and order are the main factors that are assumed to result in display clutter (for a more complete review of display organization, see Nielsen, 1993;Shneiderman, Plaisant, Cohen, & Jacobs, 2009;or Wickens, Hollands, Banbury, & Parasuraman, 2013). This perspective has been reflected in numerous clutter definitions (e.g., Bravo & Farid, 2008;Doyon-Poulin et al, 2012;Rosenholtz, Li, Mansfield, & Jin, 2005;van den Berg et al, 2009).…”

“…However, if the item is task relevant, this addition might be beneficial to the user; on the other hand, the effects might vary considerably for a nonessential item (Alexander et al, 2008;Rosenholtz et al, 2007). Task relevance is thus an additional important aspect of clutter, highlighting that it is not only the quantity and organization of information that matters but also whether that information is needed for the task at hand (Barbu, Lohrenz, & Layne, 2006;Doyon-Poulin et al, 2012;Lohrenz, Layne, Edwards, Gendron, & Bradley, 2006). On the basis of this perspective, clutter can be defined as "unwanted or unnecessary information" (Lohrenz et al, 2009, p. 90), "redundant information" (Ahlstrom, 2005, p. 90), or "an abundance of irrelevant information" (Doyon-Poulin et al, 2012, p. 2D1-2).…”

Influence of Task Knowledge and Display Features on Driver Attention to Cluttered Navigation Displays

“…As information displays have become prevalent in dynamic, safety critical domains, it has become increasingly important to design displays that convey information without excessive "display clutter". Human perception of display clutter is complex and is determined by both task knowledge or familiarity (i.e., top-down factors) and display features or data (i.e., bottom-up factors; Alexander, Stelzer, Doyon-Poulin, Robert, & Ouellette, 2012). Regarding user knowledge, changing task objectives can render certain display information elements irrelevant or redundant and contribute to perceptions of display clutter (Kaber et al, 2013;Kaber et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2011).…”