411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Las Vegas effect
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
An allusion to the bright lights of the buildings and casinos in Las Vegas.
Proper noun
Las Vegas effect 1
en GUI A distracting effect on the user resulting from overuse of colour in a user interface.
en Theo Mandel Windows vs. OS/2, the GUI-OOUI War 1994 Van Nostrand Reinhold 109 https://books.google.com/books?id=Dp4LAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Las+Vegas+effect%22&dq=%22Las+Vegas+effect%22&hl=en&cd=14&source=gbs_api 978-0-442-01750-7 This helps make a user interface seem somehow friendlier and easier to use. However, this "Las Vegas" effect, as I discussed in Chapter 1, can actually distract users from their tasks.
See also
en angry fruit salad
en terms derived from toponyms