E-Book Reader Usability Study: Reading Performance and Comprehension By Hannah Lee and Thomas Young

Introduction As digital and E-book reading continue to become more popular, a close look at how this relatively new medium compares to traditional print is important There is no conclusive evidence suggesting that E- book reading may have advantages or disadvantages in comparison to Print Reading

Research Questions The experiment is therefore designed to explore the following questions comparing E-book and Print Reading: Does E-book reading impair the reader’s ability to have an in-depth understanding of a text? Does E-book reading impair reading speed?

Choice of E-book for Study -The E-ink display bears the closest resemblance to the print format -Less potential distractions compared to other E-Book readers The Kindle Touch was chosen for the study because…

Description of Experiment 8 participants were divided into two groups (Group A and Group B) The groups were created to compare the way each specific text was read on the Kindle and on paper Group A Group B Non-Fiction Text (On Paper) vs. Non-Fiction Text (On Kindle) Fiction Text (On Kindle) vs. Fiction Text (On Paper)

Description of Experiment Fiction Text: Excerpt of the Novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Non-Fiction Text: Scientific Article “Dangerous Glass Fibers In Cigarettes Worsen Lung Damage For Smokers” by S.D. Wells The Texts chosen for the usability study were…

Description of Experiment The participants of each group were timed during both readings to measure their reading speed Each reading was followed by a 12-question quiz, designed to measure reading comprehension After the experiment was completed, each participant was given a Post-Questionnaire asking if they skimmed or re-read during the experiment on either reading format

General Results The most significant finding was that the non-fiction text results of the group that read it on the Kindle performed significantly better on the quizzes than those who read the non-fiction text on Print Both the fiction and non-fiction texts were read faster on paper than on the Kindle. The group that read the fiction text on paper performed better on the quiz than the group that read it on the Kindle

Non-Fiction Reading Time Reading times, from lowest to highest for non-fiction. (Red : On Kindle, Blue: On Paper) Average Times Non-Fiction Article ( Paper ) 5 minutes and 17 seconds Non-Fiction Article ( Kindle ) 5 minutes and 32 seconds

Fiction Reading Time Reading times, from lowest to highest for fiction. (Red: On Kindle, Blue: On Paper) Average Times Fiction Excerpt ( Kindle ) 5 minutes and 8 seconds Fiction Excerpt ( Paper ) 4 minutes and 28 seconds

Discussion of Time Results Participants read the fiction excerpt about 13% faster on paper than on the Kindle Our fiction results were consistent with the results from a study by Jakob Nielsen in 2010, whose participants read 10.7% slower on the Kindle than on paper while reading short stories Participants read the non-fiction article 4.5% faster on paper than on the Kindle although the marginal difference may render this statistic insignificant

Non-Fiction Test Scores Test scores for Non-fiction texts on both formats Average Scores Non-fiction article on Paper: 58% Non-fiction article on Kindle: 83% (Red: On Kindle, Blue: On Paper)

Fiction Test Scores Test scores for fiction texts on both formats (Red: On Kindle, Blue: On Paper) Average Scores Fiction excerpt on Paper: 100% Fiction excerpt on Kindle: 79%

Discussion of Test Results Those who read the non-fiction text on the Kindle performed better on the quiz than those who read non-fiction on paper. This could be because people are generally more accustomed to reading non-fiction on digital formats. However, they read at a relatively similar pace (only 4.5% slower)

Discussion of Test Results The group who read the fiction text on paper performed better on the quiz than those who read fiction on the Kindle. The same group also read the fiction text 13% faster on paper than the group that read it on the Kindle This may because people are more comfortable reading fiction on print because they are more accustomed to reading paper for leisure type reading

Post-Questionnaire Results The participants generally skimmed and reread more on the non-fiction text regardless of the format. This suggests that the type of text (i.e. fiction/non-fiction) could be influential in the act of skimming/re-reading than the format (i.e. print/digital).

Limitations One Kindle was used for the duration of the entire study. The sample of participants consisted of eight people The texts were relatively short. Therefore, the results only apply to short texts

Conclusions E-book readers could be better suited for non-fiction reading, while print reading could be better suited for fiction reading The results indicate that further research is required to examine these differences More participants, Longer Texts and Usage of Multiple E-book readers in future studies could provide more accurate data in relation to how E-book reading in general compares to Print reading