E-Reading in Different Media: An Exploration to User Experience

EBooks can presently be read on a plethora of devices, from a basic computer to a Smartphone. However, the most commonly applied hardware for displaying this content is the ebook reader – a dedicated electronic device that conveys the book metaphor as well as further technological developments trying to offset matters of legibility such as EInk, or a multifunctional device like iPad. In this paper the study is focusing on how usable these mobile devices are, by testing them on real users from various backgrounds. The study explores in particular the ease of use of two electronic reading devices: one dedicated reader and one multifunctional device. More specifically, the study employs eight tasks where twelve participants were asked to complete, within a specific time with these two devices. Our results show that users functioned better on the multifunctional device in terms of performance measures, such as navigation, task difficulty and satisfaction.

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