Experiment 3: Optimal Line Length for Reading Electronic Schoolbook on Screen

Joan Lu, Azza A. Abubaker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Although experimental studies have shown a strong impact of text layout on the legibility of e- text, many digital texts appearing in eBook or the Internet use different designs, so that there is no straightforward answer in the literature over which one to follow when designing e- material. Therefore, in this chapter we shall focus on the text layout, particularly the influence of line length. This experiment is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the factor of line length by studying its effect on reading speed and accuracy using various columns [one column and two columns] with each page having the same amount of information. The second part tests a new approach which basically assumes that by using different colours for the first and last word of each line, it will improve students' reading level. This hypothesis was based on pervious findings over the difficulty of being able to immediately locate the following line (Chan and Lee 2005). In addition, this approach was based on explanation of the eye movement which, in the reading process, does not scan a line but stops for about 1/4 of a second before jumping to new place such as at the end of the line when the eye goes back to the beginning of the new line.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationExamining Information Retrieval and Image Processing Paradigms in Multidisciplinary Contexts
EditorsJoan Lu, Qiang Xu
PublisherIGI Global
Pages222-246
Number of pages25
ISBN (Electronic)9781522518853
ISBN (Print)1522518843, 9781522518846
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Feb 2017

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