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Towards Non-Latin Text and Layout Personalization for Enhanced Readability

Rina Buoy, Dylan berkamp Fouepe Dongmo, Vesal Khean, Simone Marinai, Koichi Kise

TL;DR

This study presents an empirical study on how parts-of-speech (POS)-based character and layout modifications can lead to overall improvements in both reading comprehension and memorization for two non-segmented, non-Latin writing systems: Khmer and Japanese.

Abstract

Reading has always been an integral part of both professional and personal life. Character and layout recognition and understanding by computers are well-explored areas. Nevertheless, how characters and layout are read and perceived by humans remains relatively underexplored. This work contributes to the field of human-document interaction (HDI) by investigating the effects of character and layout personalization on readability. The paper presents an empirical study on how parts-of-speech (POS)-based character and layout modifications can lead to overall improvements in both reading comprehension and memorization for two non-segmented, non-Latin writing systems: Khmer and Japanese. The experimental results from 43 participants suggest that, by bolding POS-derived content words, Khmer readers perform better on both reading comprehension and memorisation tasks, with a significant effect (p-values of 0.03 and 0.04, respectively). A similar overall tendency is also observed in a pilot study among Japanese readers (10 participants) using syntactic color-coding. In addition, the analyses of reading time, answering time, and perceived difficulty reveal that the proposed text styling technique does not increase any perceived difficulty, cognitive load, or reading effort for the Khmer readers. However, the Japanese readers experienced a decrease in reading speed. This study and its findings represent a significant step towards enabling dynamic, script-dependent personalization of character and layout to optimize human readability.

Towards Non-Latin Text and Layout Personalization for Enhanced Readability

TL;DR

This study presents an empirical study on how parts-of-speech (POS)-based character and layout modifications can lead to overall improvements in both reading comprehension and memorization for two non-segmented, non-Latin writing systems: Khmer and Japanese.

Abstract

Reading has always been an integral part of both professional and personal life. Character and layout recognition and understanding by computers are well-explored areas. Nevertheless, how characters and layout are read and perceived by humans remains relatively underexplored. This work contributes to the field of human-document interaction (HDI) by investigating the effects of character and layout personalization on readability. The paper presents an empirical study on how parts-of-speech (POS)-based character and layout modifications can lead to overall improvements in both reading comprehension and memorization for two non-segmented, non-Latin writing systems: Khmer and Japanese. The experimental results from 43 participants suggest that, by bolding POS-derived content words, Khmer readers perform better on both reading comprehension and memorisation tasks, with a significant effect (p-values of 0.03 and 0.04, respectively). A similar overall tendency is also observed in a pilot study among Japanese readers (10 participants) using syntactic color-coding. In addition, the analyses of reading time, answering time, and perceived difficulty reveal that the proposed text styling technique does not increase any perceived difficulty, cognitive load, or reading effort for the Khmer readers. However, the Japanese readers experienced a decrease in reading speed. This study and its findings represent a significant step towards enabling dynamic, script-dependent personalization of character and layout to optimize human readability.
Paper Structure (22 sections, 8 figures, 9 tables)

This paper contains 22 sections, 8 figures, 9 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Typographic Factors in Segmented Scripts
  4. The Segmentation Challenge in Scriptura Continua
  5. Gap Analysis
  6. Methodology
  7. Proposed Method
  8. POS-Based Khmer Text Styling
  9. POS-Based Japanese Text Styling
  10. Experiments
  11. Khmer Style Preference Survey
  12. Japanese Style Validation (Heuristic)
  13. Readability Assessment Protocol
  14. Results and Discussion
  15. Khmer Optimal Style
  16. ...and 7 more sections

Figures (8)

  • Figure 1: The ultimate framework for dynamic text and layout personalization for enhanced readability based on a reader's goals, preferences, and congitive states.
  • Figure 2: The proposed method for POS-based text styling technique from a holistic view.
  • Figure 3: Khmer style variables (English translation : the Mine Authority stated that this unanimous decision highlights Cambodia’s leadership).
  • Figure 4: A sample reading text in English.
  • Figure 5: The proposed readability assessment protocol.
  • ...and 3 more figures