Mitigating the Effects of Reading Interruptions by Providing Reviews and Previews
This addresses the issue of frequent interruptions for students using electronic textbooks on mobile devices, representing an incremental step toward smart reading applications.
The study tackled the problem of reading interruptions on mobile devices by testing whether short summaries of previously read or upcoming content help readers re-engage, finding that previews after interruptions improve comprehension more than reviews, with user preferences favoring reviews.
As reading on mobile devices is becoming more ubiquitous, content is consumed in shorter intervals and is punctuated by frequent interruptions. In this work, we explore the best way to mitigate the effects of reading interruptions on longer text passages. Our hypothesis is that short summaries of either previously read content (reviews) or upcoming content (previews) will help the reader re-engage with the reading task. Our target use case is for students who study using electronic textbooks and who are frequently mobile. We present a series of pilot studies that examine the benefits of different types of summaries and their locations, with respect to variations in text content and participant cohorts. We find that users prefer reviews after an interruption, but that previews shown after interruptions have a larger positive influence on comprehension. Our work is a first step towards smart reading applications that proactively provide text summaries to mitigate interruptions on the go.