research-article

Influence of letter size on word reading performance during walking

Author:

Jessica ConradiAuthors Info & Claims

MobileHCI '17: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services

Article No.: 16, Pages 1 - 9

https://doi.org/10.1145/3098279.3098554

Published: 04 September 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Mobile devices like smartphones facilitate parallel activities of IT-interaction and other tasks. Especially smartphone usage during walking can often be observed. This can lead to distracted walking which frequently results in serious consequences for the user and others. As people will probably go on using mobile devices in this way, e.g., for navigation, we have to provide interaction interfaces which are adapted to the special needs of secondary usage while walking. One way to adapt apps to walking is to reduce time for content perception. A substantial part of content is given in written language, and therefore, reading is of high importance. Based on this, we pursued the reduction of reading time on a mobile device during walking.

We conducted a study which provides information about the minimum acceptable letter sizes for reading single words while walking. We carried out an experiment in which we combined short presentation times of commonly used words with different letter sizes and analyzed the outcome by means of psychometric functions. We administered these functions for the independent variables presentation time, walking speed vs. standing and length of words (number of letters) and analyzed the outcome statistically in respect to the minimal visual angle. We found highly significant influences of all three conditions on the legibility of the words. We recommend the adaptation of applications for walking according to our findings.

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Cited By

Shao JYang ZLi YLi XHuang YDeng J(2023)Research on Chinese Font Size of Automobile Central Control Interface DrivingHCI in Mobility, Transport, and Automotive Systems10.1007/978-3-031-35908-8_15(210-223)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35908-8_15
Kim HMoritz DHullman J(2021)Design Patterns and Trade‐Offs in Responsive Visualization for CommunicationComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/cgf.1432140:3(459-470)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14321
Akpinar EYeşilada YTemizer S(2020)The Effect of Context on Small Screen and Wearable Device Users’ Performance - A Systematic ReviewACM Computing Surveys10.1145/338637053:3(1-44)Online publication date: 28-May-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386370

Index Terms

Influence of letter size on word reading performance during walking
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

MobileHCI '17: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services

September 2017

874 pages

ISBN:9781450350754

DOI:10.1145/3098279

General Chairs:
Matt Jones
Swansea University
,
Manfred Tscheligi
University of Salzburg and AIT
,
Program Chairs:
Yvonne Rogers
University College London
,
Roderick Murray-Smith
University of Glasgow

Copyright © 2017 ACM.

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Published: 04 September 2017

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MobileHCI '17

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MobileHCI '17: 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services

September 4 - 7, 2017

Vienna, Austria

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Cited By

Shao JYang ZLi YLi XHuang YDeng J(2023)Research on Chinese Font Size of Automobile Central Control Interface DrivingHCI in Mobility, Transport, and Automotive Systems10.1007/978-3-031-35908-8_15(210-223)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35908-8_15
Kim HMoritz DHullman J(2021)Design Patterns and Trade‐Offs in Responsive Visualization for CommunicationComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/cgf.1432140:3(459-470)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14321
Akpinar EYeşilada YTemizer S(2020)The Effect of Context on Small Screen and Wearable Device Users’ Performance - A Systematic ReviewACM Computing Surveys10.1145/338637053:3(1-44)Online publication date: 28-May-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3386370

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