Comparative Study on Readability for Electoronic Display Media by Task Performance and Impression Evaluation

Electronic display devices such as iPad and Kindle have recently attracted considerable attention as, reading media. Although the display performance and, business model concerning the contents have been discussed, there has been little discussion on comfortability, and kansei like readability. In this paper, we conducted task performance investigation and impression evaluation among electrophoretic displays, liquid crystal displays and paper in order to examine readability for electronic displays, especially electrophoretic displays. In the task performance investigation, the reading speed, error detection rate and comprehension were measured. In the impression evaluation, the impression of the display, reading media and sense of fatigue were examined. As a result of task investigation, it was shown that the electrophoretic display was more comprehensible than that of the liquid crystal display. In the impression evaluation, the following results were obtained; 1) Although the display properties for the electrophoretic display almost passed muster, there was room for improvement in the beauty of the display. 2) The electrophoretic display was easier to read and concentrate on than the liquid crystal display. 3) The electrophoretic display was less likely to cause eyestrain and stiff-neck than other media. Principal component analysis revealed that the synthetic readability for the electrophoretic display was superior to the liquid crystal display, and moreover, the novelty of the electrophoretic display was superior to that of the other media.