[AccessD] science on visual controls

I find that the more information a form has, the less visual I like the 
form -- in other words, lots of data, suppress the actual control attributes 
by making the backgrounds transparent and getting rid of the borders.

Does anyone know if there's been any kind of science for this -- what kind 
of visual dos and don'ts are there for avoiding stress on the data entry 
operator?

Susan H.