Klementina Možina

Effect of typeface, letter case and position on recognition of short words presented on-screen

ABSTRACT In television broadcasting, there are no general rules about the implementation of various short inscriptions that accompany video image and provide additional information for the viewer. Therefore, we wanted to study what combination of typeface, letter case and position should be used for an on-screen presentation when fast recognition of a text is required. The present study investigated the minimum time required for recognising three-letter words presented in bold style on the screen in different experimental conditions. The typeface Georgia showed better legibility than Verdana, Calibri, Trebuchet and Swiss 721. Upper case letters were recognised faster compared to sentence and lower case letters. The recognition times were shorter for upper on-screen positions compared to the lower ones. The resulting combinations of text properties that are processed faster thus seem more appropriate for the on-screen use (especially for television broadcasts).

Label legibility influenced by different number of white ink layers

A different number of white ink layers printed with the inkjet technology can influence the legibility of prints. Therefore, we tested how to achieve best legibility of printed text and labelling information, considering the changes in colorimetric and typographic properties. The prints were made with an inkjet printer and three different numbers of white ink layers were used. Three different typefaces in four different sizes, appropriate for labelling, were tested. The colour differences were determined colorimetrically and the differences in the typographic tonal density of typefaces were measured with an image analysis. The legibility research was performed with the help of observers who read the printed text in the combination of white ink on black paper and black ink on white paper. The results led to the conclusion that with regard to the colorimetric and typographic quality and effectiveness, the legibility was the best at two layers of white ink.

Improving visual search in instruction manuals using pictograms

Abstract Instruction manuals provide important messages about the proper use of a product. They should communicate in such a way that they facilitate users’ searches for specific information. Despite the increasing research interest in visual search, there is a lack of empirical knowledge concerning the role of pictograms in search performance during the browsing of a manual’s pages. This study investigates how the inclusion of pictograms improves the search for the target information. Furthermore, it examines whether this search process is influenced by the visual similarity between the pictograms and the searched for information. On the basis of eye-tracking measurements, as objective indicators of the participants’ visual attention, it was found that pictograms can be a useful element of search strategy. Another interesting finding was that boldface highlighting is a more effective method for improving user experience in information seeking, rather than the similarity between the pictorial and adjacent textual information. Implications for designing effective user manuals are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Users often view instruction manuals with the aim of finding specific information. We used eye-tracking technology to examine different manual pages in order to improve the user’s visual search for target information. The results indicate that the use of pictograms and bold highlighting of relevant information facilitate the search process.