Text highlighting improves user experience for reading with magnified displays

We report on two studies of how magnified views affect the lives of users with low vision and how simple interventions can improve their user experience. In the first study we observed three low vision users with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) as they interacted with computing devices. We found that AMD users rely on the screen magnification, but the same magnified view not only makes it impossible to read longer texts independently, but also causes a loss of context. We then designed an enhancement of the conventional Windows 7 screen magnification tool by providing line-level text highlighting. We conducted an experiment in which 21 participants, with normal vision, read text from a webpage using one of three conditions: no enhancement, highlighting, and highlighting + cursor routing. We recorded the eye-movement patterns, performance, cognitive workload, and user experience. The results provide design implications and guidelines for visual aids for interaction with magnified displays.