Effect of Text font, line length and language on online information search Hang Yu Human Centered Design and Engineering University of Washington

Introduction Understanding of web content can be so different when using different languages. People are not actually reading the letters, they are reading the shapes and forms. I just got my Kindle, and the Chinese version system of Kindle you can choose your file to be presented in one or two columns, which is different from the English Version. However, English papers are presented in one column, two columns and three column.

Literature Review

Overview Influence of Font Type on Visual Search of Web Content Effect of Text line length on Information Retrieval of Web Content Effect of Language on User’s online reading performances Typography of English and Chinese Language

Typography & Text Font Typographical arrangement may provide cues for the organization of thought (Jenkins, 1951) Serif fonts significantly improved recall of information (Michael Gasser, 2005) There was little impact of font on users’ understanding of web content (Jonathan Ling, 2006) Although participants performed tasks more quickly with serif fonts, they still preferred sans- serif fonts (Scott, 1993) Chinese typography had no significant effect on subjects’ reading performance (An-Hsiang Wang*, 2003)

Text Line Length Comprehension was affected by whitespace, but participants were not affected by line length (Apedoe, 2002) The effect of line length was significant, with longer line lengths facilitating better scanning and shorter line lengths leading to better subjective outcomes (Jonathan Ling, 2006)

Hypothesis H1: Serif font can improve the speed of information search, both in English and in Chinese, compared to San-Serif font. H2: Text line length will influence the understanding of Online information more when using Chinese than English. H3: Serif font may be preferred when the information is in Chinese while San-serif font be preferred when in English

Methodology

Variables Variable TypeVariable NameAttributesScale Independent IV 1 Text line length55 cpl, 70cpl, 85 cpl, 100cpl Nominal Independent IV 2 Text fontSeirf, San-Serif Nominal Independent IV 3 Text languageEnglish/ChineseNominal Dependent DV 1 Search TimeRatio Dependent DV 2 Preferred FontSeirf, San-Serif Nominal

Experimental Design This research used a 3 factor mixed measure design. Factors: Two within subject factors: Text font Two levels: Serif, San-serif Text Line Length Four levels: 55 cpl, 70cpl, 85 cpl, 100 cpl One between subject: Language Two levels: Chinese, English

English & Chinese Fonts English letters are formed by strokes and spaces. They are more important when comes to the legibility of fonts. Chinese fonts

English & Chinese Fonts English letters are formed by strokes and spaces. They are more important when comes to the legibility of fonts. Based on the same criteria, Chinese font types are chosen.

Material and Instruments Mock web pages are created using HTML Participants access the pages using their own machine Navigation bar added to the left Pages in Chinese and pages in English have the same content with text in black (# ) and background in white (#FFFFFF)

Participants 18 participants 9 participants’ native language are Chinese while 9 are English All participants are graduate students, who uses Internet on a daily basis 38.9% of the participants are female

Procedures A set of 16 search tasks were given to the participants, each fonts show up for 8 times, in which each text line length appear twice. After the search task, participants were asked to answer several questions about the task they have given. Finally, participants were asked to choose their preferred text font and text line length.

Statistical Method A series of 2 × (2× 4) analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to assess the effects of font type (Serif or San-Serif) and line length (55, 70,85 or 100 cpl) and Language (Chinese 0r English) on search and recall task outcome measures

Results

Overview

Effect of font type When using serif font, time used in search task is shorter. F = 9.162, p = 0.08, which indicates that Serif font may increase the speed of information search. H1 is supported.

Effect of text length When text length is 70cpl, time spent on search task is the shortest. F = 6.340, p = H2 is supported

Preference LanguagePreference Chinese Serif6 San-Serif3 English Serif2 San-Serif7

Discussion & Conclusion

Conclusion & Discussion Three hypothesis are all supported from the research Time spent on searching in English and Chinese has no significant difference Font type and more factor abouts language should be taken into consideration

Thank you Questions?