Usability study finds promising results for e-readers' future.
He may not be a fan of many iPad media apps, but usability guru Jakob Nielsen is more impressed by e-books on Apple's tablet and Amazon's Kindle.
His Useit consultancy conducted a readability study of people reading e-books on the iPad and Kindle 2, comparing their speed and comprehension to people reading printed books and reading on a PC.
iPad measured a 6.2% lower reading speed than the printed book, while Kindle was 10.7% slower.
"We can say that tablets still haven't beaten the printed book," writes Nielsen, although he warns that the difference between iPad and Kindle is not statistically significant due to the study data's high variability.
When users rated their satisfaction out of seven, iPad came top with an average score of 5.8, but only just ahead of Kindle (5.7) and printed books (5.6). E-reading on a PC scored just 3.6.
Article continues belowAdvertisement
People felt more relaxed reading printed books, apparently, and didn't enjoy reading on a PC because it reminded them of work.
"This study is promising for the future of e-readers and tablet computers," concludes Nielsen.
"We can expect higher-quality screens in the future, as indicated by the recent release of the iPhone 4 with a 326 dpi display. But even the current generation is almost as good as print in formal performance metrics — and actually scores slightly higher in user satisfaction."
