ABSTRACT
The digital landscape is chock-full of numbers with decimal places. This presents an increased opportunity to misread numbers by overlooking decimal points. When designing numeric displays, make the decimal points large and remove “trailing zeros” to reduce the likelihood of a user overlooking a decimal point or misreading a critical numerical value. Cases that merit an oversized decimal point are those in which a user will base important actions on a displayed value, such as a vital sign presented on a patient monitor, the rate when programming drug infusion pumps, or revolutions per minute readings on power plant control panels and aircraft cockpit displays. Some users might also be more likely to recognize a decimal point if it is round, rather than square. The challenge for designers and programmers is to display whole and decimal values such that they are visually distinct and not vulnerable to being misread.
