Supporting Mobile Reading While Walking with Automatic and Customized Font Size Adaptations

The pervasive use of mobile devices for information consumption makes reading on-the-go an unavoidable daily occurrence, whereby walking creates a natural situational impairment for reading. In this work, we quantify the impact of walking on reading performance and compare automatic system adaptations with user customizations for mitigating these impacts. We collected user interactions and mobile sensor data of reading while walking in a controlled lab study with 45 participants. We found that automatic font size adjustment by viewing distance mitigated the performance degradation from walking, yielding faster reading speed and increased comfort. Furthermore, exposure to the automatic adaptation functionality influences user customization behavior and preferences for reading while walking. We discuss implications and provide design suggestions for personalizing interfaces when reading on-the-go, including blending system recommendation with user customization, offering multiple points of customization through appropriately-timed prompts, and refining recommendations based on observed preferences.