DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

Myra THIESSEN
It takes little effort for one to imagine the potential that digital technology has to improve
literacy education, especially for children who struggle to learn to read due to a
developmental deficiency like dyslexia. The use of digital technology is common in
classrooms and as a society we are reading more and more onscreen. It is undoubtable
that today’s children will, or do, have a different attitude to their parents about reading
from more traditional print formats verses those onscreen due to the prevalence of
computers, videogames, and handheld devices in daily life. Advancing technology may
be able to provide more inclusive reading solutions due to their flexibility in presentation
but a difficulty lies in the limitations of our knowledge about how readers interact with
these presentations and how exactly to capitalise on their potential when designing for
onscreen reading scenarios. Much of how reading materials are developed for screen is
influenced by what we know about how individuals decipher texts in print media;
however, if readers do not interact with content in the same way when reading from
screen that they do from print (Dyson, 2004) this approach may not be effective and we
are not likely to benefit from the full potential digital media has to offer, particularly for
readers who struggle with literacy development.
Digital reading technology may have the potential to improve the learning experience of
dyslexic children, but before these children can fully benefit it is essential to first
understand how to design texts for (1) digital media and (2) dyslexic readers. If a better
understanding can be gained we will be more likely to develop reading books that not
only enhance the ease and efficiency with which these children are able to acquire fluent
literacy skills but also boost their interest in reading and motivation to spend more time
doing so. This paper presents a review of some typographic considerations for designers
of texts produced for new digital reading devices as outlined in the literature. It describes
the context of the problem and suggests an approach for on-going research that is
exploring textual considerations like letter, word, and line spacing and the optimal size of
the type, and argues for the importance of empirical studies in the development of
onscreen reading materials for children with dyslexia.
Design matters
Children with dyslexia struggle to gain fluent literacy skills despite the fact that they have
the cognitive capacity and academic opportunity to learn. This is due to a deficit in
phonological awareness that influences their ability to identify, segment, and sequence
the different sounds that make up words. It is with this skill that our ability to decode the
written word is developed: it is the foundation from which literacy is built (Snowling, 2000;
2006; Vellutino, et al., 2004; Shaywitz, et al., 2008). With a need for clear typography to
enhance legibility and an understanding of how children interact with the verbal content in
their reading books, it is unquestionable how the production of better literacy materials is
as much a problem for those who are developing this visual aspect of the material –
typographers and typographic researchers – as for psychologists and linguist. How
letterforms are presented on a page (e.g. the typeface, amount of space, stroke weight
and variation, alignment, line length, etc.) may have a tremendous influence not only on
how easily the text can be read but also on whether a child is motivated to pick the book
up in the first place.
Our understanding about how readers interact with texts and the influence typographic
design has on legibility (e.g. space, size, line length, etc.) has given us a certain
understanding about how to approach the layout of text in print media; however, with the
relative newness of digital media our understanding of how to optimize text presentation
for onscreen reading is still limited. As a result much of how text is designed for onscreen
reading is influenced by what is known about design for print resulting in digital designs
that attempt to replicate the look and feel of traditional presentations complete with
Conference Proceedings 1869