Paper #18

Reading Speed Performance based on Interface Design Elements for Web Interfaces

Zuriana Abu Bakar and Tan Zhiang

Abstract: The development of technology and internet has contributed to more people viewing on-screen content and an increase the amount of material that can be read directly from a Web-based platform. The transformation from paper-based materials to digital materials on the Web, more or less has affected the readability of the materials in which information presented on the printed and web-based documents is dissimilar. However, only few studies have been carried out on the presentation of information specifically, the readability of the text in web-based platform. Meanwhile, readability is one of the crucial aspect of Web usability and could affect the success of a website. The speed of reading is regarded as a good measure of readability. Therefore, this study aims to measure the readers reading speed for web interfaces. This study followed a quantitative analysis method that used experiments to collect data and involved university students as the test subjects. A Web-based Reading Speed Test System (RSTS) was developed for data collection and analysis purpose. The findings of this study found that the web interface with the combination of blue font color, yellow background color and Arial font type have the highest reading speed. In contrary, web interface that consists of combination black font color, white background color and Arial font type have the lowest reading speed. In addition, the reading speed of male participants was slightly higher than the female participants. To conclude, the results of this study signify that the interface design had a significant impact on the students reading speed for web pages.

Keywords: Design elements; Interface design; Reading speed performance; Web interface.