eye movement study of reading text on a mobile phone using paging, scrolling, leading, and rsvp
Which text presentation format is best to use on a mobile phone? We have evaluated Scrolling, Paging, Leading, and Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) in a balanced repeated-measurement study employing 16 subjects on a mobile phone. Besides monitoring reading speed, comprehension, and task load, we also tracked eye movements while reading. The results show that text presented in the Page format is read significantly faster than both the Scrolling and the RSVP format without any significant differences in comprehension. The Page format was moreover significantly less demanding to use compared to Leading and RSVP for most factors according to NASA-TLX. RSVP was found to significantly decrease eye movements whereas Leading was found to increase them. Leading yielded very irregular eye movements, but this did not affect reading speed. These results show that Paging offers best readability on a mobile phone, an interesting finding given that Scrolling is the format predominantly used today.
eye movements mobile phone evaluation readability