Enhancement of reading experience. Users’ behavior patterns and the interactive interface design of tablet readers
| Date | 09 September 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-01-2014-0002 |
| Pages | 509-528 |
| Published date | 09 September 2014 |
| Author | Kuo-Liang Huang,Kuo-Hsiang Chen,Chun-Heng Ho |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
Enhancement of
reading experience
Users’ behavior patterns and the
interactive interface design of tablet readers
Kuo-Liang Huang
Department of Industrial Design, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan, Taiwan
Kuo-Hsiang Chen
Department of Creative Product Design, I-Shou University,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and
Chun-Heng Ho
Department of Industrial Design, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – Tablets are becoming mainstream devices for digital reading. Through user experience
(UX), the purpose of this paper is to identify significant differences between tablet reading systems
and other digital reading systems, explore potential requirements for the interactive interface, and
propose design solutions so that user’ behavioral intention (BI) may be further enhanced.
Design/methodology/approach – First, the authors extracted the context of use and behavior
patterns by conducting contextual inquiries; then, potential requirements were identified and design
solutions were developed; last, the technology acceptance model was employed to verify research findings.
Findings – The outcome shows that the improved version of the interactive interface is significantly
(po0.05) superior to the original versionin various aspects, including perceived usefulness, perceived
ease of use, user attitude, and BI.
Originality/value – So far, there has been no relevant research on UX concerning tablet reading
systems. Therefore, this study first tried to investigate the primary difference between tablet reading
systems and other digital reading systems in context of use and behavior patterns. Then, based on
the foregoing discoveries, users’ motivations and perception of tablet readers were probed, and the
problems with BI could be solved.
Keywords User studies, Experience, Electronic books, Software development, User interfaces,
Redesign
Paper type Research p aper
Introduction
It is almost 30 years since digital reading was developed. With the advancement of
information technology (IT), people’s reading activity gradually transferred from
paper-based reading to digital reading. Recently, e-books have gone through two waves of
revolutionary breakthroughs. To begin with, Amazon integrated software, hardware,
contents, and marketing into one device in 2007, launched Kindle e-reader, and
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Received 4 January 2014
Revised 23 February 2014
27 March 2014
Accepted 7 April 2014
Library Hi Tech
Vol.32 No.3, 2014
pp. 509-528
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-01-2014-0002
This study is financed in part by the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan under the
research grant NSC 98-2221-E-690-MY3. The authors would like to thank all the participants in
this study. Without their assistance and valuable suggestions, this study could not have been
completed.
509
Enhancement of
reading
experience
materialized the concepts of cloud bookcases. With the new device, e-book users
can read anytime and anywhere. Then, in 2010, Apple released iPad Tablet PC, which
presented itself as a reading system after incorporating iBooks platform. The fresh
reading system not only provides many innovative and attractive applications for digital
reading but also interprets digital reading more properly with the brand-new context
of use. In consequence, a lot of internationally renowned publishers, fully aware of
new opportunities, claimed one after another that they would enter the market of e-books
or e-textbooks.
According to a behavioral intention (BI) intelligence fo recast (Gobry, 2012), the
annual sales of tablets will exceed those of PCs in 2015. Regarding user behavior,
46 percent of the tablet users frequently read e-books (AdMob, 2011). As for market
shares, Apple iPad accounts for more than 60 percent (Revin et al., 2012). With regard
to reading applications, the e-reading platfor m of iBooks under iPad reading system
integrates software, hardware, contents, services, and multimedia applications, thereby
creating brand-new reading experiences. Actually, a tablet is a portable device whose
contextofuseisdifferentfromthatofnon-tabletreadingsystems(Pittet al., 2011).
Digital reading is a complicated activity which necessitates careful consideration of
users’ cognitive problems (Pearson et al., 2012) and user experience (UX) (Zhang and
Ma, 2011; Greifeneder, 2011). According to ISO (1998), context of use is shaped by
several factors: users, products, tasks, as well as the physical and social environments
of use locations. Including UXs accumulated at different times and different situations,
reading habits are deep-rooted behavior patterns extremely difficult to change. Such
being the case, an excellent e-book reading system must strengthen traditional and
paper-based reading skills. To achieve that purpose, the interactive interface, as the
focus of enhancement, must be easily operated (Huang et al., in press; McFall, 2005).
Therefore, an increasing number of scholars believe that human-computer interaction
(HCI) must consider the context of use in which users interact with a product. In that
way, users’ requirements can be clearly defined (Ball and Hourcade, 2011; Sharp et al.,
2007). Also, only if behavior patterns and context of use are fully grasped to enhanc e
usability, will users’ habits and attitudes be altered. Then, users will genuinely accept
and adopt the product (Hakiel, 1997; Yang et al., 2011b).
Admittedly, tablet reading systems reinterpret digital reading; also, a growing
number of people have gradually changed their reading habits. Yet, the authors’
concern is how to further improve the reading experience and accepta nce of tablet
readers through analyzing UX and redesigning the interactive interface.
In the next few years, tablet PCs will replace PCs as major computer devices (Gobry,
2012) and become major devices for reading. So far, literature on digital reading has not
been found to cover the context of use concerning tablet readers. Moreover, to enhance
the acceptance of tablet readers, there are still some aspects left to be desired. Under
such a situation, the objectives of this study are to employ UX to identify significant
differences in behavior patterns between tablet reading systems and other digital
reading systems, to discover potential requirements for UX-based interactive
interfaces of existing tablet readers, and to propose design solutions. Hopefully,
users’ willingness to adopt tablet reading systems will be further reinforced. For those
purposes, the authors developed research questions as follows:
RQ1. In comparison with other digital reading systems, what distinctive
characteristics does a tablet reading system have in terms of behavior
patterns and context of use?
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