Tangible Browsing for E-Books: Design and Evaluation of a Haptic Approach for Digital Reading

Sensory perception is an important part of reading. Physical books are experiencedhaptically, for instance when turning pages using one s fingers. When browsing e-bookson current reader devices, this tangibility is missing. Our research investigates if the userexperience of e-book readers can be improved by adding haptic feedback to the act of browsing. For this purpose an e-book reader with applied nylon wires has beendeveloped, with which browsing becomes tangible. The prototype has been tested withusers and compared to an e-book reader with a common touch-controlled scrollbar usingquantitative and qualitative methods. The results show that the scrollbar version enabledparticipants to navigate faster. However, the prototype with haptic feedback receivedbetter ratings in terms of pragmatic and hedonic quality as well as attractiveness.Additionally, tangible browsing enabled users to navigate more precisely. This wouldexplain, why participants appreciated the pragmatic qualities, even though the act of browsing was slower. Therefore haptic feedback can improve the acceptance of e-books.