Word.ws English Dictionary

Las Vegas effect

Las Vegas effect proper noun: a distracting effect on the user resulting from overuse of colour in a user interface.

Proper noun

the Las Vegas effect

  1. A distracting effect on the user resulting from overuse of colour in a user interface.
    • 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.1994, Theo Mandel, Windows vs. OS/2, the GUI-OOUI War, Van Nostrand Reinhold, →ISBN, page 109

Origin of Las Vegas effect

An allusion to the bright lights of the buildings and casinos in Las Vegas.

Questions about Las Vegas effect

What does Las Vegas effect mean?
Las Vegas effect means a distracting effect on the user resulting from overuse of colour in a user interface.
What part of speech is Las Vegas effect?
Las Vegas effect is a proper noun.

Words near Las Vegas effect in the dictionary

  1. Las Vegan
  2. Las Vegans
  3. Las Vegas
  4. Las Vegas algorithm
  5. Las Vegas algorithms
  6. Las Vegas effect
  7. Las Vegas rule
  8. Las Vegas rules
  9. Las Vueltas
  10. Las-ud
  11. las.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Las Vegas effect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Las Vegas effect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/las_vegas_effect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.