A study of user's reading preference on vertically displayed dynamic Chinese information

Abstract

As information technology advances, using screen device to read dynamic real-time information has become more frequently, and the related researches focused on dynamic information reading are increasing. However, the existing researches only investigated the effects of display type and display speed on reading, but ignored the age which is also an important variable. In addition, vertically displayed dynamic Chinese information was seldom been studied as well. This study aimed to investigate the reading preference for users to read vertically displayed dynamic Chinese information at different dynamic information design factors and age conditions, in order to learn the differences among them and to provide a reference for later in the design of vertically displayed dynamic Chinese information. The reading preference for the four age groups (under 19 years old, 20–39 years old, 40–59 years old, above 60 years old) at the conditions of two display types (i.e.: leading, rapid serial visual presentation(RSVP)) and four display speeds (182, 232, 282 and 332 cpm, characters per minute) were investigated. The results revealed that: (1)display type had a significant effect on reading preference, and leading display was significantly superior to RSVP; (2)display speed had a significant effect on reading preference; the reading preference was good at 182cpm, fair at 232cpm, poor at 282cpm, and pretty poor at 332cpm; (3) age had a significant effect on reading preference; the reading preference of the age group under 19 years old was higher than other age groups, and the reading preference of 40–59 years old age group was significantly lower than those of under 19 years and above 60 years old age groups.