The influence of color on program readability and comprehensibility

Abstract

Readability and comprehensibility are among the most important attributes of a program. A program that is easy to read and understand is easier to test, maintain, and modify. Many factors affect program readability and comprehensibility, including variable names, internal documentation, modularity, and so on. This paper investigates the influence of color on program readability and comprehension. Three color schemes were used: Color-scheme-A used different colors to indicate the different blocks in a program; Color-scheme-B used different colors to identify the various statements function in the program; and the third color scheme was the usual black-and-white programs. This study showed that subjects who used programs with Color-scheme-B had the highest mean score for program comprehension, followed by those who used Color-scheme-A. Subjects who used black-and-white programs scored the lowest on the comprehension quiz.

References

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Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Enterprise computing

    • Business process management

  • Law, social and behavioral sciences

    • Law

• General and reference

  • Cross-computing tools and techniques

    • Performance

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing and business

      • Automation

    • Computing education

      • Computing education programs

        • Computer science education

    • Management of computing and information systems

      • Software management

        • Software selection and adaptation

• Software and its engineering

  • Software notations and tools

    • Development frameworks and environments

      • Integrated and visual development environments

  • Software organization and properties

    • Extra-functional properties

      • Software performance