Apple To Zebra Chart

[Michele Firmasyah]

Isthere any research out there showing whether or not alternating the row colors for a table increases/impedes the time it takes to parse information? An example can be found at the following location:

I generally find it easy to associate the input fields with the row names as long as the table is formatted correctly. So, I am not sure if alternating the colors actually adds to the user experience, but I guess I can see why this is stylistically appealing.

The first study, described in an earlier article, tested users' ability to read and interpret data in a simple table. The second study was similar to the first, with an improved methodology. The third study attempted to determine whether users tend to have a subjective preference for striped tables.

The results of the three studies conducted to date suggest that the safest option is to shade the alternating, individual rows of your table with a single color. Taking this approach is likely to ensure that:

For on-screen tables, I think it's best to have non-alternating tables but have the entire row under the mouse to be highlighted. Also, the column header that the mouse is pointing should also be highlighted.

Again, this is a solved problem, with examples in Envisioning Information, chapter 3. Strips are merely bureaucratic or designer chartjunk; good typography can always organize a table, no stripes needed.

If you are going to use colors, make the colors meaningful. Why is this row dark? Why is this row lighter than the others? There should be a reason other than "this line happened to go after this other one".

I don't know of any research on this field, but if you take alot of rows and columns in Microsoft Excel and compare them with and without alternating backgrounds my experience is that it's much easier to know what column is connected to what row, especially if you want data from the rightmost column and you use the first (leftmost) column as the reference.

I've also found a highlight on mouseover (or click if you want to support touchscreens like smartphones) to be helpful - a bit like a zebra stripe that only appears to visually group the specific row you're interested in at the moment.

If you are going to use any of these visual-grouping backgrounds, separating them as they did in the image you posted as an example is a strict no-no. The visual breakup by the table cell padding is jarring.

Alternation of background color in rows helps with accessibility for users who have vision problems. One example is scotopic users, who without the right colors or alternating rows may end up reading the same row over and over among other issues. Here are some of the symptoms of scotopic vision:

This list is misleading when it says stripes because of the subject matter, however, the text itself is the "stripes" and the striping in the table is actually what breaks that up and makes it easier to read.

Reading Games with Ziggy the Zebra is a supplemental product that can be used with All About Reading Level 1. This full-color book with perforated pages features nine file-folder games that reinforce the skills taught in All About Reading Level 1. Your student will practice important concepts like blending, counting syllables, and recognizing vowels and consonants, and will have ample opportunity to review the Phonogram and Word Cards from the All About Reading program.

The games included in Reading Games with Ziggy the Zebra are a fun way for children to review theconcepts in All About Reading Level 1. The chart below outlines when each game can be used with Level 1. You can also download this chart here.

If you need an extra player, Ziggy is always a willing participant. The Zigzag Zebra is already a familiar face to users of our pre-reading program, but if you're just meeting Ziggy for the first time, you'll soon discover that he is a young zebra who is learning to read right along with your student. He is a supportive friend for beginning readers, and he likes to have a good time as he learns. The Ziggy puppet makes an enjoyable accompaniment to this book, and is sold separately. (If you don't own our plush Ziggy puppet, don't despair! We've included a paper cutout of Ziggy in the book, and you can paste his likeness onto a file folder and prop him up to play along.)

Other destinations include Paris, a Caribbean island, Mongolia, and the South Pole. Your child and Ziggy go to each continent and outer space, too! The book includes a map so your child can keep track of the places visited.

Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded,[2] although Let It Be (1970) was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970.[3] It was mostly recorded in April, July, and August 1969, and topped the record charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A double A-side single from the album, "Something" / "Come Together", was released in October, which also topped the charts in the US.

Abbey Road incorporates styles such as rock, pop, blues, and progressive rock,[4] and makes prominent use of the Moog synthesiser and guitar played through a Leslie speaker unit. It is also notable for having a long medley of songs on side two that have subsequently been covered as one suite by other notable artists. The album was recorded in a more collegial atmosphere than the Get Back / Let It Be sessions earlier in the year, but there were still significant confrontations within the band, particularly over Paul McCartney's song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and John Lennon did not perform on several tracks. By the time the album was released, Lennon had left the group, though this was not publicly announced until McCartney also quit the following year.

Although Abbey Road was an instant commercial success, it received mixed reviews upon release. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticised the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Beatles' best and one of the greatest albums of all time. George Harrison's two songs on the album, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", are considered among the best he wrote for the group. The album's cover, featuring the Beatles walking across the zebra crossing outside of Abbey Road Studios (then officially named EMI Studios), is one of the most famous and imitated of all time.

McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions,[11] while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again".[12] Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single "The Ballad of John and Yoko" in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions.[13] Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife Yoko Ono had become a permanent presence at Beatles recordings, and clashed with other members.[11] Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.[6]

During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other.[12] The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs, while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions "[music] for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs",[14] and describing the medley as "junk ... just bits of songs thrown together".[15]

Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines[11] rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono anywhere in the world.[16] The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesiser. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesiser was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound.[11] Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness ... I went nuts on the toms."[17]

Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier tube (thermionic valve)-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing.[18] Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel[19] and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier tube (valve) desks.[20] In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, the music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."[21]

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