Digital Reading in Academic Environments

1. Digital Reading in AcademicEnvironments Usability Test for Potential Use of e-Readers in Universities Dana Kianfar, EvgeniyaZabolotnya

2. E-books become increasingly popular among students, instructors, and academic advisors. Can they be recommended in academic environments? • Research Question: • → How well can students perform essential tasks needed for academic purposes on e-book readers? • → Given a set of different e-book reader which is the one preferred by the students and why? • Devices: • iPad 2 (full-sized tablet) • Nexus 7 (mini tablet) • Kindle (e-Ink screen)

3. Observations: pros and cons Nexus • Pros • Ergonomics, battery life • Cons • Small screen, glare • Confusing touch-sensitivity iPad • Pros • Large screen, aesthetics • Intuitive interface • Cons • Glare • Heavy Kindle • Pros • Very ergonomic, No glare • Amazon Kindle store • Cons • Interface

4. Requirements • Based on previous exploratory study • Simplicity • Response Time & screen refresh rate • Touch-sensitivity • Weight, comfortability • Results convey a relatively high impatience and intolerance to errors • In an academic setting

5. Method: Procedure • Pre-test questionnaire (~ 2 minutes) • Warm-up • Collecting background information • Ten close-ended questions • Usability test (~ 15 minutes) • 15 fixed set of tasks mining for quantitative data • Order of tasks to measure learnability and memorability • Primary metrics for evaluation: errors per task per device, time per device • Think-Aloud protocol • Post-test questionnaire (~ 5 minutes) • Cool-down • Allow participants to reflect on their experience • 29 open-ended questions aiming at qualitative data

6. Method: Questionnaires • Pre-test • Demographics: age, gender, nationality, mother tongue • Technology: comfortability, previous experience with readers • Post-test • Likert scales on overall device evaluation • For each device • Positive/negative on reading experience • Intuitive interface and easy to use • Response-time • Overall thoughts, favorites and suggestions

7. Method: Tasks • From flipping pages to searching the web • Easy but very common operations, covering most of what the device offers • Same procedure for each device and each participant • Devices distributed at random to prevent learning effect

8. Method: Tasks (1) Find the book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in the native application (2) Navigate to page 24 (3) Highlight two paragraphs (4) Write a note on the same page: note by [alias-name] (5) Bookmark page 20 (6) View notes on page 100 (7) Return to bookmarked page (8) Search for word 'horrid' in the text (9) Define 'horrid' using the dictionary (10) Look for “Oscar Wilde” on Wikipedia (using web browser) (11) Navigate to first link you find (12) Return to the previous page (13) Navigate to Chapter 3 (14) Change the font size (15) Find the note you made earlier

9. Results - Participants • 50% of the participants described themselves as technologically savvy • Average total time spent on test was 12.8 minutes • Average time of those who did not consider themselves as technologically savvy was 17.5 minutes

10. Results – Time spent on device Completion of tasks took the longest with the Kindle 9 minutes The Nexus 7’ mean was 4.8 minutes The iPad was the least time consuming with on average 3.6 minutes • Error distribution • 43% of errors occurring on the Kindle • 38% closely followed by the Nexus 7 • 21% of total errors on the iPad only

11. Results – Most erroneous tasks • Task #2, navigate to page 24, was the most erroneous with 22% of the total amount of errors • → First task, participants may have benefited from an introductory exploration, • Kindle does not display page numbers. • On Nexus 7 it was difficult to stop page changing. • Task# 6, asking to find a note on page X has caused 14% of the total errors. • → On Kindle to be found under the ‘Go to’ menu. • On the Nexus notes are embedded in the menu bar having a great resemblance with • other icons, difficult to remember/confuse. • Menu bar would disappear/ responds slowly. • Task#9, asking to define the word horrid via the dictionary, received 13% of all errors • → 63% of the 15 errors occurred on the Kindle, bad interface design, difficulty using the physical keyboard. • On the Nexus 7, did not find such application, had to leave the book to search web

12. Results – Participant Evaluation • The Kindle was referred to as interesting, complicated, non-intuitive • The iPad was described as being easy, fun, intuitive, and fast. • Nexus 7 was referred to as annoying when jumping pages, or waiting for the menu to appear. • LCD screen as fun, enjoyable, and colourful • But, for academic purposes an e-ink reader is less tiring to the eyes.

13. Conclusion • Students were able to perform essential academic tasks most efficiently with the use of the iPad • → shortest time spent • → smallest number of errors • Great difficulties with the use of the Kindle • Participants were able to perform academic tasks on all devices, but with great difference in time and ease • → iPadis the only device that can be recommended for academic studies • To be considered: • iPad interface has greatest resemblance to a PC • Popularity of Apple products among students • Possible distraction through applications (social media)