Research Highlight: The Influence of Format Readability on Children’s Reading Speed and Comprehension

Research Highlight: The Influence of Format Readability on Children’s Reading Speed and Comprehension

Studying Format Readability in Children   Dr. Stephaie Day and team conducted a study that provides important insights into how text format readability changes (in this case, font and letter spacing variations) impact reading performance in readers in grades 3–5. The results showed that changes to text format significantly improved reading speed at both the…

Format Readability Enhancing in Basic Mathematical Operations

Research Highlight: Format Readability Enhancing in Basic Mathematical Operations

Optimized Text Formats Increase Student Performance in Mathematics   Would you solve mathematical problems more efficiently or experience them as less difficult if the problems were presented in your best reading format? A new paper says yes. Recent research on how typography impacts mathematics was presented at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual conference.…

Vision Sciences Society: Readability Posters Published

VSS 2023: Readability Posters Published

Readability Research From The Applied Perception and Psychophysics Laboratory University of Toronto Mississauga     The Applied Perception and Psychophysics Laboratory at the University of Toronto Mississauga focuses on questions at the intersection of vision science and real-world problems and takes a use-inspired approach to research. This approach means that the lab looks to real-world…

THERIF: Themes for Readability from Iterative Feedback

Research Highlight | THERIF: Themes for Readability from Iterative Feedback

Engineering Reading Themes for Diverse Audiences   Prior research has shown that personalization of text formats can significantly improve reading performance, creating better results in speed, accuracy, and comprehension. As these benefits are better understood, digital reading application providers are working to offer readers custom control over text settings, but adjusting the settings can be…

Digital Reading Rulers Evaluating Inclusively Designed Rulers for Readers With Dyslexia and Without, CHI'23

Research Highlight: Digital Reading Rulers

Evaluating Inclusively Designed Rulers for Readers With Dyslexia and Without   At the leading international conference on Human-Computer Interaction ACM CHI’23, first-author Aleena Niklaus presented Digital Reading Rulers: Evaluating Inclusively Designed Rulers for Readers With Dyslexia and Without. Physical reading rulers have been used with books for years as a readability aid. The research team…

Space for Readability: Effects on Reading Speed from Individuated Character and Word Spacing

Space for Readability: Effects on Reading Speed from Individuated Character and Word Spacing

Space for Readability: Effects on Reading Speed from Individuated Character and Word Spacing Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting December 2022   The Vision Sciences Society has again highlighted readability work. A peer-reviewed abstract was presented at the VSS conference and published in the 2022 conference proceedings. The research studies the influence of character and word…

28 Experts join forces for readability research

Research Highlight: “Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach”

New Readability Research Paper Aims to Accelerate Best Practices and Methodologies   Readability Research: An Interdisciplinary Approach published in Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction – December 12, 2022   Paper Introduction “From the moment we wake up to the moment we end our day, we use interfaces built out of the written word. Textual…

Fonts of Wider Letter Shapes Improve Recognition

Research Highlight: Fonts of Wider Letter Shapes Improve Letter Recognition

Small Font Changes can Make Significant Differences in Successfully Reading Digital Text   As more and more reading moves from print to digital surfaces, it is important to challenge typographic traditions established when most reading involved printed materials. There is little research about the impact of character width on letter recognition. Digital text is generally…