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The Miratech team wanted to know how reading patterns differ between an iPad and a printed newspaper
Our conclusion : people read articles in a printed newspaper and only skim through them on an iPad.
We conducted a study to analyze the differences between reading on an iPad and reading a printed newspaper.
For the purposes of the study, we used the iPad and printed versions of the 20 Minutes newspaper. We used special eye tracking technology to monitor the eye activity of participants, and we measured how well they remembered the articles and ads.
In our previous article, we revealed that reading on an iPad is more superficial than reading in a printed newspaper.
We continued to analyze the results by focusing on the average overall reading time, the number of articles read, and the number of ads looked at.
Eye activity on the front pages of the iPad and paper versions
The most significant difference was in the number of articles read.
Readers read twice as many articles on an iPad than in a printed newspaper (35% of articles read on the iPad, compared with 18% on paper).
This is because reading on an iPad is more superficial: people skim through the information (see previous results). They concentrate less and less information is retained.
There is no marked difference between ad visibility on an iPad and in a printed newspaper. 26% of ads are looked at on the iPad, compared with 21% in the printed paper.
Ads get just as much attention on paper...
...than on an iPad.
We noticed that readers spend more time on the iPad, taking 2'30" more to go through the whole newspaper!
The readers noticed that the brightness of the iPad screen made text and images stand out. As a result, the iPad content looks more appealing and readers want to spend more time on it. On the downside, they also noticed that reading on the iPad put more strain on their eyes.
Miratech revealed the differences between reading on an iPad and reading a printed newspaper:
In short : we skim through articles on an iPad and we actually read them on paper.
In our next newsletter we will present the results of our study on how computer mice and touch screens are used.
Newsflash : Miratech is launching MJ-Application, a subsidiary dedicated to developing mobile applications. We are applying our user-centered design methods to the development of mobile applications for the iPhone, iPad, and the Android and Blackberry operating systems: www.mj-application.com.
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Email : contact@miratech.com