Research-Driven edTech Solutions Readability Matters is committed to a research-driven approach to delivering personalized reading environments empowering everyone everywhere to achieve more. In their work to accelerate innovation in education, Digital Promise shares our commitment to research-driven work. They note that “Researchers can inform product design and teaching strategy and evolve new research methodologies…
Add or Subtract Character Spacing Background: Tune Your Text to Improve Readability To improve reading performance, individuals need the ability to “Tune their Text” or change how words appear on the screen using a full set of “Readability Features.” These include character shape (base font determines character shape and also weight; additional features can…
University Student Survey of Reading Format Preference Readability Matters invited a professor at a top 75 US University to conduct a quick survey of reading format preference. Thirty-seven students aged 18-21 elected to participate. They were invited to play in the Readability Matters’ Sandbox and to design a format they would like to use…
Readability Researches Study the Impact of Fonts to Improve Reading Outcomes In a newly published paper, researchers from Brown University, Adobe Inc., University of Central Florida, and Riverdale Country School studied the impact of font change on 386 skilled readers, ages 18-71. Readers were evaluated with subsets of sixteen fonts. The results demonstrate that…
Come Play in our Sandbox! Today, Readability Matters added a sandbox to the website. Software developers often create a test environment, called a sandbox, with elements for the intended users to try before the code is built, tested and deployed. Our sandbox allows readers to Tune Their Text, to experience controlling the text format…
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. I love reading both because it’s enjoyable and it plays a critical role in helping me become a better leader.” Harry S. Truman Great Leaders are Readers Most leaders read four to five books a month. Leaders from the c-suite, the board…
“Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, readers must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately.” Reading Rockets Fluency: The Canary in the…
Adobe Education Leaders Summit Marjorie Jordan, Founder, represented Readability Matters at the 2019 Adobe Education Leaders Summit held this summer in San Francisco. She presented the benefits to education of using Tuned Text in a general session and hosted product fair and feedback sessions. Adobe Education Leaders are an invited set of impressive educators…
Readability Matters White Paper: Maximizing Individual Reading Performance with Tuned Text Kathy Crowley and Marjorie Jordan July 17, 2019 Many researchers have demonstrated the value of changing text format to increase reading speed and accuracy for an individual. THE PROBLEM Unfortunately, the issue with adopting more readable text as an approach for education or even…
Readability Changes Impact Reading Performance Readability Matters advocates for the provision of a full set of Readability Features (including font choice, size, character spacing, character expansion, and line spacing.) Previous Readability Matters research has demonstrated significant numbers of readers benefit from the simple change to a clean round font, such as AvantGarde. Font matters…