Patent ID: 7336265

Claim:
A display control device for a touch panel-type setting-operation unit, comprising: display unit for displaying a plurality of manually operable keys on a display screen; input unit provided integrally with or separately from said display unit and operable, in response to the operation of at least one of said keys displayed by said display unit, to allow an instruction corresponding to said operated key to be entered therethrough; action detection unit for detecting the execution of an action reflecting an instruction entered from said input unit through the operation of one or more of said keys displayed by said display unit; evaluation value calculation unit operable, when the execution of said action is detected by said action detection unit, to calculate an evaluation value representing the operational status of said operated keys; and display control unit operable, based on said evaluation value of said key, to vary the respective display colors of the display areas for said keys of said display unit in a stepwise manner using a color gradation from a color with high visibility to a color with low visibility in order of higher score of said evaluation value.