Video Display Operator's Eye Scanning, Comfort/Discomfort and Performance in a Hard Copy - Screen and a Split Screen Data Presentation

Abstract

Six subjects,all experienced typists, were tested during two full working days in a VDT workstation using two different data presentation modes from hardcopy to screen and split screen -and a mixture of data entry and file maintenance tasks.The results of this exploratory study indicate that looking for more than 80% of the time at the screen when using a split screen as compared to looking less than 40% at the screen when using a hard copy resulted only in small or no additional increases in both the visual and the musculoskeletal discomfort scores. The subjects maintained a similar overall performance for both data presentations. Based on these results we may conclude that 1) the amount of time looking at the screen appears to have no major influence on both visual and musculoskeletal comfort/discomfort, and that 2) a regimen to adequately reduce the work-stress in continuous VDT work should focus on the duration of uninterrupted constrained sitting while the screen viewing time should not be considered as a major factor.