Usability of e-Readers for Book Navigation Tasks

Even though more people are beginning to use e-Readers, electronic reading devices, little research exists on the usability of these devices for book reading. This study looks at the usability of three touch-screen eReaders (iPad, Kindle Fire, and Nook Tablet) for basic book navigation tasks. During the study, participants (N = 16) were asked to complete a series of tasks (e.g., bookmarking a page, highlighting text, etc.) on the three e-Readers, and rate the difficulty of each task. Task completion time and number of taps required to complete each task on each device was also recorded. Participants rated each device on their perception of workload and satisfaction. When they completed all the tasks on all the devices, participants were asked to rank each device on a series of attributes and overall preference. Results revealed no overall “winner” and no significant differences between the devices on perceived workload and satisfaction. Each device proved to have some strengths and weaknesses by task. The Nook was preferred more than the iPad and Kindle for its menu structure, and the iPad was ranked higher than the Kindle and Nook on highlighting and notes. The Kindle was preferred for tasks which required changing text size and text searching. Suggestions are offered for the improvement of future touch screen e-Readers.