Visual stress of blinking cues and density of multiple graphs in dual tasks

Modern information displays have increasingly conveyed visually crowded data in a multi-screen layout. Visually demanding high-density displays require the system user´s cognitive process progressively more. Here blinking cues have played an effective role as notification to attract the viewer´s immediate attention in especially urgent decision-making processes. The relationship between blinking cues and visual density in a multi-tasking environment has not been much studied empirically. This study examines the interaction of visual stress and distraction by blinking cues, with visual density of multiple graph displays and the user´s multi-tasking performance with a blinking notification system. Unexpectedly, the user perceived higher visual stress when using the system with no-blinking cue than with blinking cues, in a dual-task condition used in this study, but only with low-visual-density secondary tasks. Moreover, blinking cues resulted in more errors during overall tasks in a dual-task environment, particularly by monitoring multiple graphs with high visual density. Blinking cues, however, enhanced the user´s performance overall with a high density system in a dual-task situation, but blinking cues do not really facilitate low density secondary tasks in multi-tasking performance.