The Impact of Paging vs. Scrolling on Reading Online Text Passages

In a previous issue of Usability News, we examined the use of paging vs. scrolling for the presentation of search results. In that study we found that a moderate amount of scrolling (fifty links per page) was preferred to search result presentations that required either a large or small amount of scrolling (one-hundred links per page and ten links per page, respectively). Participants were also fastest at searching in the fifty-link condition. In this study, we examined the use of paging vs. scrolling in reading passages, including participants' reading comprehension in paging and scrolling conditions. Dyson and Kipping (1998) found that participants read through paged documents faster than scrolled documents, but showed no differences in reading comprehension. METHOD A Pentium II based personal computer, with a 60 Hz, 96dpi 17" monitor with a resolution setting of 1024 x 768 pixels was used. Content for the passages came from Barron's "Passkey to the ACT" (2001) study guide. The articles had a mean of 713.7 words (S.D. = 36.83). The passages were presented in 10 point Verdana. Participant performance was tracked using Ergobrowser TM software.