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Designing for Digital Reading

Jen Pearson Orcid Logo, George Buchanan, Harold Thimbleby

Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services, Volume: 5, Issue: 4, Pages: 1 - 135

Swansea University Author: Jen Pearson Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.2200/S00539ED1V01Y201310ICR029

Abstract

Reading is a complex human activity that has evolved, and co-evolved, with technology over thousands of years. Mass printing in the fifteenth century firmly established what we know as the modern book, with its physical format of covers and paper pages, and now-standard features such as page numbers...

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Published in: Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services
Published: Morgan Claypool 2013
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17312
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spelling 2014-11-14T13:39:30.5281974 v2 17312 2014-02-13 Designing for Digital Reading 6d662d9e2151b302ed384b243e2a802f 0000-0002-1960-1012 Jen Pearson Jen Pearson true false 2014-02-13 SCS Reading is a complex human activity that has evolved, and co-evolved, with technology over thousands of years. Mass printing in the fifteenth century firmly established what we know as the modern book, with its physical format of covers and paper pages, and now-standard features such as page numbers, footnotes, and diagrams. Today, electronic documents are enabling paperless reading supported by eReading technologies such as Kindles and Nooks, yet a high proportion of users still opt to print on paper before reading. This persistent habit of "printing to read" is one sign of the shortcomings of digital documents -- although the popularity of eReaders is one sign of the shortcomings of paper. How do we get the best of both worlds?The physical properties of paper (for example, it is light, thin, and flexible) contribute to the ease with which physical documents are manipulated; but these properties have a completely different set of affordances to their digital equivalents. Paper can be folded, ripped, or scribbled on almost subconsciously -- activities that require significant cognitive attention in their digital form, if they are even possible. The nearly subliminal interaction that comes from years of learned behavior with paper has been described as lightweight interaction, which is achieved when a person actively reads an article in a way that is so easy and unselfconscious that they are not apt to remember their actions later.Reading is now in a period of rapid change, and digital text is fast becoming the predominant mode of reading. As a society, we are merely at the start of the journey of designing truly effective tools for handling digital text.This book investigates the advantages of paper, how the affordances of paper can be realized in digital form, and what forms best support lightweight interaction for active reading. To understand how to design for the future, we review the ways reading technology and reader behavior have both changed and remained constant over hundreds of years. We explore the reasoning behind reader behavior and introduce and evaluate several user interface designs that implement these lightweight properties familiar from our everyday use of paper.We start by looking back, reviewing the development of reading technology and the progress of research on reading over many years. Drawing key concepts from this review, we move forward to develop and test methods for creating new and more effective interactions for supporting digital reading. Finally, we lay down a set of lightweight attributes which can be used as evidence-based guidelines to improve the usability of future digital reading technologies. By the end of this book, then, we hope you will be equipped to critique the present state of digital reading, and to better design and evaluate new interaction styles and technologies. Book Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services 5 4 1 135 Morgan Claypool 31 12 2013 2013-12-31 10.2200/S00539ED1V01Y201310ICR029 COLLEGE NANME Computer Science COLLEGE CODE SCS Swansea University 2014-11-14T13:39:30.5281974 2014-02-13T08:45:52.3948506 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science Jen Pearson 0000-0002-1960-1012 1 George Buchanan 2 Harold Thimbleby 3
title Designing for Digital Reading
spellingShingle Designing for Digital Reading
Jen Pearson
title_short Designing for Digital Reading
title_full Designing for Digital Reading
title_fullStr Designing for Digital Reading
title_full_unstemmed Designing for Digital Reading
title_sort Designing for Digital Reading
author_id_str_mv 6d662d9e2151b302ed384b243e2a802f
author_id_fullname_str_mv 6d662d9e2151b302ed384b243e2a802f_***_Jen Pearson
author Jen Pearson
author2 Jen Pearson
George Buchanan
Harold Thimbleby
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description Reading is a complex human activity that has evolved, and co-evolved, with technology over thousands of years. Mass printing in the fifteenth century firmly established what we know as the modern book, with its physical format of covers and paper pages, and now-standard features such as page numbers, footnotes, and diagrams. Today, electronic documents are enabling paperless reading supported by eReading technologies such as Kindles and Nooks, yet a high proportion of users still opt to print on paper before reading. This persistent habit of "printing to read" is one sign of the shortcomings of digital documents -- although the popularity of eReaders is one sign of the shortcomings of paper. How do we get the best of both worlds?The physical properties of paper (for example, it is light, thin, and flexible) contribute to the ease with which physical documents are manipulated; but these properties have a completely different set of affordances to their digital equivalents. Paper can be folded, ripped, or scribbled on almost subconsciously -- activities that require significant cognitive attention in their digital form, if they are even possible. The nearly subliminal interaction that comes from years of learned behavior with paper has been described as lightweight interaction, which is achieved when a person actively reads an article in a way that is so easy and unselfconscious that they are not apt to remember their actions later.Reading is now in a period of rapid change, and digital text is fast becoming the predominant mode of reading. As a society, we are merely at the start of the journey of designing truly effective tools for handling digital text.This book investigates the advantages of paper, how the affordances of paper can be realized in digital form, and what forms best support lightweight interaction for active reading. To understand how to design for the future, we review the ways reading technology and reader behavior have both changed and remained constant over hundreds of years. We explore the reasoning behind reader behavior and introduce and evaluate several user interface designs that implement these lightweight properties familiar from our everyday use of paper.We start by looking back, reviewing the development of reading technology and the progress of research on reading over many years. Drawing key concepts from this review, we move forward to develop and test methods for creating new and more effective interactions for supporting digital reading. Finally, we lay down a set of lightweight attributes which can be used as evidence-based guidelines to improve the usability of future digital reading technologies. By the end of this book, then, we hope you will be equipped to critique the present state of digital reading, and to better design and evaluate new interaction styles and technologies.
published_date 2013-12-31T03:19:58Z
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