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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

#171

Post by WalterGR »

graeme wrote: post #165
rokhayakebe wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read at 146 words per minute, and that is average text. I probably read slower when the material is hard. Over the past year or so I went through roughly 90% of Plato's work (like, really), The Quran (partially), On the Nature of Things, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Discourses by Epictetus, How to Read by M. Adler, Alchemy of Happiness by Ghazalli, etc.... I also read several short text including James Allen, Xe…

I like spreeder: http://www.spreeder.com/ Set the chunk size to three for best effect. Just gradually increase it each time, and also try using it occasionally with the speed far too fast. You'll get used to subvocalizing less, and reading multiple words at once. Of course, for complex texts like the ones you read, it's natural to read much slower. I read 600 WPM for most internet articles, but I'm sure I wouldn't re…

Since I don't find RSVP mentioned in the comments here:

That technique is called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_Serial_Visual_Presentatio...

(The Wikipedia article should mention saccades (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade) but strangely it doesn't.)

I wrote an RSVP reader in the mid-to-late 90s in QuickBasic. I'll have to see if I can dig up that code. :)

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

#172

Post by tonydiv »

BIG thanks for not lying to me after I didn't perform any better reading the colored text. I would definitely consider showing the colored text first for some others, and second for others. Once I knew that you were going to ask questions about the text, I became more attentive. Nonetheless, I tried to read as if I didn't know there would be questions afterwards in hopes of not skewing the results.

Once again, thanks for being honest in your test and not convincing me to use something that might not actually help me.

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

#173

Post by saraid216 »

I did History, used Bright, and got a 43% improvement.

Then I got suspicious. I thought that I was subconsciously affecting my own behavior. (Anticipating a test, for instance. Expecting Beeline to speed up my reading, for instance.)

So I did Nature, used Bright, and got no improvement.

...I need a better blind.

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

#175

Post by liquidcool »

A big pet peeve of mine has been the trend to forgo black fonts for lower contrast grey, and it appears this developer is doing that as well (#333 instead of #000 when "Off" is selected). My hunch is that low contrast text (I've even seen medium grey on light grey!) comes from designing on a fantastic display with 100%+ color gamut and great accuracy and viewing angles. Take a phone/tablet/laptop with an average (lousy) LCD into a brightly lit room (or God forbid, outside) and the contrast goes in the toilet. Is black on white that hard?

The other problem I see (mostly on Chrome) is that headings are anti-aliased, but the body text is not. The difference is subtle, but still noticeable.

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

#176

Post by kellishaver »

cam_l wrote: post #148
saraid216 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that there's a threshold effect going on: if you naturally read faster than a certain speed, certain design tricks will actually make you read even faster. If you naturally read slower, then those same tricks slow you down. Would love to see it confirmed or falsified. (As a note, I am probably under this hypothetical threshold; I'm not a slow reader, but I find that efforts to speed up my reading speed gene…

I cannot understand why it would slow you down, why do you think it might? Anyway, my experience from this is that it was much easier to differentiate, parse, and scan with the ugly colours (43% faster apparently). However, my natural slowness in reading is in both understanding and committing to memory. I get the feeling that this did not help much with regard to this..

I cannot understand why it would slow you down, why do you think it might?

For me, I found the changing color to be too distracting. My eye was constantly being drawn away from the text I was reading to another color on a line below or above.

It may be worth noting that I only have one eye, and it's not a very good one - 20/100 visual acuity with about a 15deg. visual field.

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

#178

Post by x0054 »

I am dyslexic. I just used the screen reader on the iPhone to read to me the challenge text at full speed. It told me that I read 4% faster with BeeLine on :) apparently the iPhone cares, because I wasn't even looking at the screen.

Insidently, the speak function of iOS is amazing for people with dyslexia. I use it all the time to listen to text at speeds of 300+wpm. I know many of my friends can read at 600+wpm my them selves, but not for a few hours on end. In any case, if you are dyslexic and use iOS, check out the read function under accessibilities.

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

#180

Post by cam_l »

kellishaver wrote: post #176
cam_l wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot understand why it would slow you down, why do you think it might? Anyway, my experience from this is that it was much easier to differentiate, parse, and scan with the ugly colours (43% faster apparently). However, my natural slowness in reading is in both understanding and committing to memory. I get the feeling that this did not help much with regard to this..

I cannot understand why it would slow you down, why do you think it might? For me, I found the changing color to be too distracting. My eye was constantly being drawn away from the text I was reading to another color on a line below or above. It may be worth noting that I only have one eye, and it's not a very good one - 20/100 visual acuity with about a 15deg. visual field.

Amazing, it had the exact polar opposite effect for my eyes. I often have trouble keeping my place in black and white text. I find it like trying to focus on a single conversation in a pub but I end up hearing everyone at once.

If you don't mind me postulating, I wonder whether this difference is something intrinsic to the focussing effect of binocular vision, or if your field of view has maybe trained your brain to be more urgently perceptive to peripheral vision?

then again, maybe its just colour perception.. or different strokes (and thanks, I just learnt about binocular summation.. fascinating)

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