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Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

beelinereader.com

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Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#101

Post by scholia »

aquark wrote: post #95
thejacenxpress wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did find it easier to read faster, however I do believe the JFK portion was chunked with a lot of bigger words/data like years, cities, full names whereas the SBA paragraphs were simpler (IMHO).

Would be great if they could A/B test the text used. I found the JFK portion harder to read/understand and I don't think it was entirely the colouring. Still, I think it is a cool idea and will give the bookmarklet a try for a while.

JFK passage was definitely harder to read. Even so, I got:

"It looks like BeeLine didn't improve your reading speed this time through."

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#102

Post by gnicholas »

mekoka wrote: post #52

Installed, tested with a couple of articles. It does the job it claims to do. A few things: it would be nice to be able to configure the plugin to limit the color variations. I'd like to try with only 2 colors and with less drastic contrasts. I suspect that only a slight transition between two close colors would already be helpful enough for me. Now, I'm afraid to get used to the crutch and find it harder to read boo…

We absolutely plan to make configurable versions available—this is just the first iteration. As for your concern about extended use: the only thing we've heard so far is the precise opposite. People have contacted us to say that they experience a "training effect", so to speak. Apparently reading with the color gradient helps them read in black for some period after. Would love to know how it works for you—feel free to contact through the email address on the website!

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#104

Post by gnicholas »

gamerDude wrote: post #33

I definitely noticed that I could read faster with this. And the colors were super obnoxious, so grayscale was my choice. What I would really appreciate was if it could be done without taking it out of the page I was already on. I would really appreciate some way for it to automatically do it and not take me to a new page, maybe something I could install into my browser?

We are absolutely working on more native implementations. This is just the first iteration!

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#105

Post by moron4hire »

well, it significantly mangles things on The Guardian. basically, all of the little "NSA" tags in this article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/governm...

get wiped out, making the text difficult to understand.

Also, be careful to wait for it to work. I didn't think it worked and clicked it a second time. I ended up with funfetti colors, not smooth gradients.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#106

Post by 3pt14159 »

crazygringo wrote: post #39

Hmmmm... I'm sure it'll need a linked scientific study to actually back up the claim. (And every speed-reading product I've seen has usually had a decrease in comprehension rate...) It's a clever idea, but anecdotally, from my experience, I'm finding it slows down my reading -- I'm having a hard time processing the blurbs because I don't read "linearly" -- I scan content to find the relevant parts, and the color chan…

I normally read around 600 to 1000 wpm (depending on how dense or vapid it is). This speeds up my reading wayyyyy past that. 1500 wpm? And I was barely trying. It does look super fucking ugly, but it totally works for me. They need to bring in an army of designers and make software geared towards legal assistants / lawyers because they need this desperately.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#108

Post by bvi »

3pt14159 wrote: post #106
crazygringo wrote: post #39

Hmmmm... I'm sure it'll need a linked scientific study to actually back up the claim. (And every speed-reading product I've seen has usually had a decrease in comprehension rate...) It's a clever idea, but anecdotally, from my experience, I'm finding it slows down my reading -- I'm having a hard time processing the blurbs because I don't read "linearly" -- I scan content to find the relevant parts, and the color chan…

I normally read around 600 to 1000 wpm (depending on how dense or vapid it is). This speeds up my reading wayyyyy past that. 1500 wpm? And I was barely trying. It does look super fucking ugly, but it totally works for me. They need to bring in an army of designers and make software geared towards legal assistants / lawyers because they need this desperately.

What techniques do you use? I read at around 600wpm, and increasing it by 50-100% seems pretty daunting.

Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier

#109

Post by gnicholas »

pmann wrote: post #53

One tiny bug: in the survey after the reading challenge, I was unable to change the number of hours I read per day. I tried to enter 1.5, but it won't take the decimal and I was unable to backspace to delete the 5. Overall, a very cool idea, I was surprised to find that I read faster. It said only 3% faster, but I searched for an event mentioned in the first set of text which slowed me down.

Thanks for the feedback! It's not just about speed, it's about reading ease too. We hear great things from people who read while on public transit. All the movement makes line transitions (and staying on the same line in general) more difficult.
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