Which One Do You Prefer? iPad, Kindle, or Printed Book?

Written by GtoRMan Thursday, 08 July 2010 08:18

One of many benefits you get from owning portable device, like iPad and Kindle, is you can use it wherever and whenever you want. Surely, learning that this machine can be carried around, it enables you to do your jobs effectively and you can use this compact device for easy reading as well.

Speaking of reading with iPad or Kindle, particular study conducted by Jakob Nielsen from Nielsen Norman Group tried to compare the effectiveness of reading between these two devices with the old-schooled paper-and-ink reading material. So, let’s find out the exact result of the test has been conducted.

According to the test, the level of readability when using iPad, Kindle 2, and printed material is varied. The study showed that reading from printed book is much faster compared to e-book reading. It is said that the speed of reading most readers measured on iPad is 6.2% slower than reading printed material, whereas Kindle 2 showed 10.7% slower reading speed.

Furthermore, even though iPad and Kindle showed significant different level of reading speed than printed material, it would be hard to prove that iPad can give a faster reading experience than Kindle 2. Nielsen stated that the comparison between iPad and Kindle 2 regarding the reading speed experience each device performed will not prove significant result because the result will be not statistically noteworthy. He added, there would only be a slight difference appear, so people shouldn’t be depend on these speed readings experience as the basic reason whenever they want to buy the device.

Apart from the reading speed measurement, the study conducted over users was also pulling final conclusion in the regard of the level of satisfaction. The level of satisfaction users showed after utilizing iPad, Kindle, and printed material were almost equal.  On one-to-seven ranking scale, the score for iPad as 5.8, Kindle 2 showed 5.7 of score, and printed material showed 5.6 of score. Additionally, PC showed lower score which was 3.6.

Furthermore, when the surveyed users were asked to write free comments on forms, the most comments they delivered were almost predictable. Some of them didn’t feel that iPad is good device to reading since it is heavy. Kindle 2 was said to have less-crisp gray-on-gray letters some users didn’t like either. Moreover, most users didn’t feel iPad is suitable device to choose because it is lack of pagination that difficult them during reading. However, some of the surveyed users claimed that reading printed material was more convenient and relaxing rather than reading with electronic device like iPad and Kindle.