New Readability Study Finds Personalizing Text Formats Improve Reading Outcomes Published in the proceedings of the Computer Human Interaction (CHI) Conference 2020, was this study of font as a factor in accelerating adult reading. The 63 participants were aged 18-55; they were 12 university students and 51 from digital testing platforms. Those with low…
ReadWorks’ High-Quality Content in Readability Research Readability Matters is excited to announce that we have teamed up with the nonprofit ReadWorks to enhance testing materials used in research with K-12 students. ReadWorks uses cognitive science research to create world-class content. They currently serve over 16 million students and are growing rapidly as learning becomes…
Study Measures the Differences in Glance-Based Legibility of Eight Sans-Serif Typefaces In a paper published in Ergonomics, the International Journal of Research and Practice in Human Factors and Ergonomics, Sawyer, Dobres, Chahine and Reimer compared differences in glance-based legibility of eight sans-serif typefaces. Their research demonstrates that differences measured in milliseconds are significant in…
The global pandemic has changed how students are educated. Worldwide, 9 out of 10 children, or 1.57 billion learners, are out of school (UNESCO, April 2020). Education looks different with students now at home being educated by their parents and by teachers remotely. To tackle this challenge, organizations across sectors are working together with new…
World Education Readability Features & Technology for Better Reading (Part II) This is the second post in a two-part series on the readability of digital texts and literacy. The first post defines readability and why it matters. The second post describes reading speed gains by tuning typeface alone, as well as opportunities to get…
World Education Readability Features & Technology for Better Reading (Part I) The team at Readability Matters partnered with World Education to publish an article on the importance of better readability for their audience of educators serving adult learners. This is the first article in a two-part series on the readability of digital texts and…
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…