The Effect of Screen Size on Readability Using Three Different Portable Devices

As small portable computing devices become more prevalent in society, the readability of text available on such devices becomes of increasing concern. This paper describes two experiments that compare the readability of text presented on three portable devices, a laptop, a Rocket Book, and a Palm Pilot. The first experiment involved a visual search task on one page of text while the second experiment required scrolling (or paging) of text. We hoped to discover whether reading speed was affected by screen size when text was presented with and without the need for scrolling. We also hoped to determine whether error rates were correlated to screen size. Finally, we wished to investigate issues of user satisfaction as they related to the different devices.

Chung, I-Hsin, Erica Kolatch, Sofia Sculimbrene and Hui-Fang Wen. SHORE 2000 (2000). Articles>Typography>Wireless Web>Usability