I recently conducted a study into the helpfulness (or lack thereof) of zebra striping—the shading of alternate rows in a table or form. The study measured performance as users completed a series of tasks and found no statistically significant improvement in accuracy—and very little statistically significant improvement in speed when zebra stripes were implemented.

A List Apart: Articles: Zebra Striping: More Data for the Case

This is a great article over at A List Apart. For those who have been wondering whether or not to use zebra striping on their website(s) this is a must read.