Explore a new haptic reading experience

Abstract

Today, thanks to digitization, publications are no longer fixed, but dynamic and fluid. The convenience of carrying, the diversity of interaction and the convenience of resource acquisition provided by e-reading make e-reading more and more popular. However, there is still a lot of room for exploration in this field based on the more reading experience brought to readers by electronic screens, and it is also the direction that more laboratories and companies want to develop. There are many interactions and feedback that cannot be achieved in physical reading, such as how to make readers immerse themselves in the scene and truly feel the objects in the book; the reader establishes an emotional connection with the objects described in the book through touch and generates emotional resonance; or through touch senses attract readers' attention, enhance their reading concentration, etc. And these can be achieved through e-reading.

Furthermore, in the process of reading, because the reading medium is mostly limited by paper books, most people memorize the contents of a book by vision, except for some auxiliary tools, such as bookmarks or dog-earing pages. But with the development of e-reading, readers can have more forms of interaction with e-books, not limited to visuals; at the same time, e-books can also provide more feedback modes. So, will this multi-sensory reading mode provide new opportunities for people's long-term memory of reading content?

This graduate project explores how to improve the readers' e-reading experience and the long-term memory of the content through haptic technology. I gained more relevant information through literature reviews on topics such as haptic exploration and reading comparisons of print and e-books, as well as research with target users. The target group was identified as 20-30 year olds who are familiar with and own electronic reading devices. In order to achieve the design goal, an interaction vision with three qualities of immersed, focused and playful is proposed.

Based on the insights gleaned from the research phase, I designed 5 initial prototypes and tested them with 11 participants. After this, test results are collected and analyzed for a second iteration, resulting in an integrated prototype. Then, the test was conducted again with 3 participants, and the test results were collected and analyzed, resulting in a third prototype. Finally, I tested the third prototype again with 6 testers and finally got the final design. A total of three test evaluations and prototype iterations are used to continuously refine the design prototype to improve its usability and functionality.

The final design of this project is a mobile-based e-reading application. It can transmit the emotional changes of characters in the story through vibration, thus bringing users a more immersive, focused and playful reading experience.