What are some ways to highlight information? What are the general guidelines when considering highlighting?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Methods of highlighting include: Blinking and audible tones, Color differences, Intensity differences, Size differences, Font differences, Reverse video, Boxing, Underlining, All capital letters, Offsetting the position of nonstandard information. Highlighting should be used to enhance user experience not be a distraction. In general, highlighting should be used sparingly to draw the user to or away from certain information and to group together certain information. There are several situations when highlighting can be a valuable technique for conveying special information:
• Notifying users of errors in data entry or processing;
• Providing warnings to users regarding possible problems such as unusual data values or an unavailable device
• Drawing attention to keywords, commands, high-priority messages, and data that have changed or gone outside normal operating ranges.
A general guideline resulting from this research is that highlighting should be used conservatively. Once a response is made, these highlights should be turned off. Additionally, highlighting methods should be consistently used and selected based upon the level of importance of the emphasized information.