Paper presented at SIS 2012 Conference held at NIT Silchar organised by Dr. K C Satpathy

1. Evaluation of eBook User Interfaces by the
University Students: A Case Study
Dr. Chennupati K. Ramaiah
MSc (Meerut), MLISc (Delhi), PhD (Loughborough),
MACM, MASIST, MCLIP, FSIS
Professor & Head,
Dept. of Library and Information Science,
Pondicherry University, R.V. Nagar, Kalapet,
PUDUCHERRY – 605 014. Email: ckramaiah@gmail.com

2. Good Car Interface

3. Mitsubishi’s concept - Emirai future car interface

4. Future electric vehicles integrates an innovative touchscreen
dashboard and steering wheel input system

5. Flight Interface
Some user interfaces take two people to operate

6. Xerox's Star workstation - First Commercial GUI

7. Apple UI

8. Windows 2.0 UI in the late 1980s – 2K

9. Workstations GUI
Motif graphical interface - Unix
Animated UI in 2000s
workstations in the 1980s.

10. Mobile Phones UIs

11. Samsung-S8500-Wave-Bada vs. LG-Optimus-Android

12. Touch screen vs. iPhone
LG KM900 Arena Mobile Phone

13. What is HCI?
• The study of all aspects of how people interact with
computer hardware and software
Social and
Ergonomics
• It is multidisciplinary Cognitive organizational
and
human
Psychology psychology factors
Engineering
Computer
science
Design
HCI
Artificial
Intelligence Anthropology
Linguistics Philosophy Sociology

14. Why is HCI important?
• Computer technology is pervasive (how many
computers have you interacted with today?)
• Issues of
– efficiency
– frustration
– economy
– health
– safety

15. Historical Developments
MEMEX
• In 1945, Bush published an article on’’As we may think’’:
“A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his
books, records, and communications, and which is
mechanised so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed
and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his
memory (Bush, 1945, p. 7)”.

16. Historical Developments
Prof. Andy van Dam
• The term ’’eBook’’ was coined by Andy van Dam over 40 years ago
• Working nearly four decades on systems for creating and reading
eBooks with interactive illustrations for use in teaching and
research.
Alan Kay developed Dynabook in 1968
’’Dynabook’’ , a precursor of today’s modern notebook computers.
Dynabook is a notebook with a million-pixel screen, 8
processors, both wireless and wired networking
Dynabook is “a portable interactive personal computer, as accessible
as a book’’ - http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/archives/Kay/01_Dynabook.html

17. Historical Developments
Apple HyperCard in 1989 – Bill Atkinson
Steve Jobs, 2011 – Portable eBook readers
Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.net/) - Dr Michael Hart, University of Illinois
stated in 1971.
• He produced an ASCII version of the ’’Declaration of Independence’’ and sent it to
everyone on the networks.
• In 1990s NuvoMedia’s Rocket EBook and SoftBook Press’ SoftBook Reader were
introduced.
Why eBooks?
• Book circulation in Research Libraries decreased between 20-30% in the past few
years.
• Users using p-books as last resort, they prefer to use e-content for research in all
forms.

18. Features of eBooks
• The layout of a print book or a PDF will always be the same.
• eBook's main purpose is to be read on an eReader.
• eBooks have different internal structure, and are meant to be
manipulated.
• Unlike a printed book, an eBook is “flexible, can be manipulated in many
ways.
• Users can choose their own font, size, colour, increase line
spacing, margins, as well as line spacing and "page" margin can be
changed by the reader.
• Screen size affects how many words appear on the screen at a
time, because of this "flowing" nature of the text in an eBook,
• Each screen or "page" of text will never have a set page number.
• eBook will change and "re-shape" itself with every adjustment the reader
makes.

19. Printed vs. eBook

20. Printed vs. eBook

21. Types of eBooks
Types of eBooks Software-Based eBooks
• Web-Based
 Microsoft Reader
• Software-Based
 Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader
• Reading Devices
 MOBI, EPUB, etc.
Web-Based eBooks eBook Reading Devices
• netLibrary  Gemstar/RCA REB 1100 & 1200
• Questia  Franklin eBookMan
• ebrary
 goReader
• Books24x7
 Hiebook
• Safari
• ACLS History eBook Project  Palm, Visor, & Pocket PC
• BiblioVault  Cell Phones (e.g., Kyocera)

22. eBook File Formats
Features
Embed
Intera
Word ded
Filename DRM Image Table Sound ctivity Open Book- Video
Format wrap annotat
extension support support support support suppo standard marking support
support ion
rt
support
DjVu .djvu ? Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes ?
Yes/No Yes/No[f
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[f 2]
EPUB (IDPF) .epub [f 1] 1]
Yes/No[f
No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
FictionBook .fb2 3] ? ?
HTML .html No Yes Yes Yes[f 4] No Yes Yes No No Yes[f 5]
Yes[f
Yes Yes Yes[f 6][23] Yes[f 7][24] Yes Yes No Yes Yes 8][24]
Kindle .azw
MSReader .lit Yes Yes ? No No Yes No ? Yes ?
.prc,
Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Mobipocket .mobi ?
Multimedia
.exe Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ?
EBook
eReader .pdb Yes Yes ? No No Yes No Yes Yes ?
Plain text .txt No No No No No Yes Yes No No No
Plucker .pdb Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes ?
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes[f9]
PDF .pdf
PostScript .ps No Yes ? No No No Yes ? ? ?
Tome Raider .tr2, .tr3 Yes Yes ? No No Yes No ? ? ?

23. eBook Reading Devices
eBook Reading Devices GEB1150 - successor to
Compaq iPAQ PDA the Rocket ebook from Gemstar
(Show own PDA in demo)
• Gemstar/RCA REB 1100 & 1200
• Franklin eBookMan
• goReader
• Hiebook
• Palm, Visor, & Pocket PC
• Cell Phones (e.g., Kyocera)
• Franklin eBookMan
• EPOC
• Gemstar Rocket eBook McGraw Hill eBook
• Handheld PC
• Hiebook Growth eBooks (ref: IDPF)
• Macintosh
• Palm • 2007 half million eBooks
• Pocket PC • 2008 three fourths million eBooks
• Windows CE
• 2008 one million eBooks
• Windows PC
• Windows Tablet

24. Comparison of eBook Readers

25. Various types of eBook Readers
How to read the content?
Too many formats, lack of international standard.

26. What is an User Interface?
• Books - Characteristics
• eBooks: User interface plays a central role
between the user and any computer
application including in eBooks.
• eBook user interface is a screen through
which user interacts with the book.
• It is a blended mix of all the interface
elements like pull-down menus, icons,
navigation options and graphics etc., offers
better interface for the user.

27. Purpose of eBook UIs Evaluation
• Diverse cognitive and perceptual abilities, personality differences, cultural
and international diversity of the users differ from each other because of
various age groups, subjects backgrounds, professions etc.
• It helps in understanding what the users really wants to do and how they
can do it easily.
• To know their likes and dislikes and level of acceptance with regard to
various features of eBook user interface.
• It will ensure whether the created design matches to the user expectations
or not.
• Evaluation tests the acceptability, usability and functionality of interactive
system.
• To identify the best useful features to be incorporated in the eBook design
from the users perspective.
• The goal of evaluation is to identify specific problems with the design.

28. Today's UIs are that simple!
Night reading facility A reader sees when searching on
the Nook iPad app

29. Today's UIs are that simple!

30. Aim and Objectives of the Study
• The aim of the study is to evaluate the users’ perception on
EBooks UIs (that offer a range of features differ from each other) and find
out their level of acceptance of various features.
The objectives of the study are:
1. To identify the popular eBook publishers and their user
interfaces;
2. To examine various common features of eBooks that are
available in the market;

31. Aim and Objectives of the Study
3. To find out unique tasks that can be done with the help of
eBooks but not with printed books;
4. To determine the users’ likes and dislikes about the various
eBook interface features;
5. To assess the users’ acceptability of different interfaces of
eBooks;
6. To identify the problems faced by the users’ while using
eBooks;
7. To identify the best features to be incorporated along with
present generation eBooks; and
8. To identify future trends in the interfaces of eBooks.

32. Scope and Limitations
• The scope is limited to the collection available in the
PUCL and few freely downloadable eBooks.
• The size and total representative sample of eBooks
and users was not chosen due to time and available
e-resources limitation.
• Several formats of EBooks could not be
downloadable because of application dependency
and some other technical problems.

33. Review of Literature
• Identified latest technologies, reading devices, eBooks
formats and UI features for this study.
Methodology
• Evaluation can be done by different methods such as
cognitive walk through, expert study, model based
analysis, heuristic evaluation, query techniques, etc.
• Some approaches are based on expert analysis such as
analytic methods, review methods, query methods etc.
• Some approaches involve users such as experimental
methods, observational methods, and query methods.

34. Data Collection Techniques
• The following two techniques are used in this study.
Model-Based Evaluation
• Certain cognitive and design models combining design
specification and evaluation to the framework.
• This model predicts user performance with a particular interface
and can be used to filter disliked design options.
Query Techniques
• Query techniques can be useful in finding out details of the user’s
views on the features of an interface.
• Participants Background Questionnaire
• User Feedback form.
Data Collection Tools
1. Participants Background Questionnaire
2. User Feedback form.

35. 2. User Feedback Form
To suit the objectives of this study, questions are
categorized into 7 sections as follows:
1. Personal Profile (already covered in 1)
2. Navigational Features
3. Screen Design Features
4. Interactivity Features
5. Graphics
6. Information Searching
7. User Problems

36. Survey Sample
12 Schools of Pondicherry University.
• Integrated PG students;
• PG students,
• M.Phil. & Ph.D. scholars
• M.Tech students,
Sampling Technique
• Random sampling

37. Data Analysis
I. Personal Profile of the Sample
Variable Categories Percentage
Gender Male 56
Female 44
Age 21-25 96
26-30 4
Qualification Integrated P.G. 6
P.G. 75
M.Tech. 10
M.Phil. 8
Ph.D. 1
Studying in 1. Subramania Bharathi School of Tamil Language & Literature 7
2. School of Management 14
3. Ramanujam School of Mathematical Sciences 10
4. School of Physical, Chemical & Applied Sciences 11
5. School of Life Sciences 7
6. School of Humanities 8
7. School of Performing Arts 7
8. School of Social Sciences & International Studies 6
9. School of Education 7
10. School of Media & Communication 10
11. School of Engineering & Technology 11
12. Madanjeet School of Green Energy Technology 12

38. Computer Usage Analysis
• > - 2 years experience - 41.7%
• 3-4 years experience - 20.8%
• 5 years experience – 16.7% 57%
• 5 - < years experience – 20.8%
• 55.6% uses computers almost every day
• 31.9% uses few times in a week
• 12.5% uses few times in a month

39. Experience in using Computers
• 73.6% (34.7%: very easy, 38.9%: easy) of them feel
easy to use
• 26.4% of them feel average with computers.
• 47.2% of them have their own PC’s,
• 37.1% of them have their own laptops
• 16.7% of them do not have either of them
• All of them are familiar with MS-Windows not
Fedora, Redhat, Ubuntu etc.
• 90.3% of the respondents have on-screen reading
habit

40. Experience in using Internet
• Less than one year using Internet - 9.7%
• 2-3 years - 41.7%
• 4-5 years - 19.5%)
48.3%
• More than 5 years 29.2%
• 61.1% of them use Internet almost every day
• 29.3% of them use Internet occasionally
• 9.7% of them use few times in a month.

41. Training to use Internet
• 37.5% of them had undergone formal training
in using Internet
• 62.5% of them did not get any kind of training
Easy to Use of Internet
• 33.3% of them felt it is very easy to access
Internet, 73.6%
• 40.3% of them feel it is easy,
• 26.4% of them mentioned that they can
access averagely.

42. E-Document & EBooks Usage
• PUCL gets eBooks, e-journals, e-databases etc.
• Reasons for using E-Document - frequently
updating of information - 91.7%
• 91.7% of them used before except a very few
(8.3%).
Level of experience
• 51.4% of them using for the past 2-3 years
• 41.7% of them using less than 1 year
• 6.9% of them using e-documents 4 years.

43. E-Document & EBooks Usage
• 95.8% of them accesses eBooks online
• 4.2% of them get access to eBooks through PUCL Website
• No one uses standalone CD’s or DVD’s
• 62.5% of them use multimedia eBooks
• 47.2% of them use video enabled eBooks
• 15.3% of them use animation and graphics enabled eBooks.
Awareness about the PUCL eBooks subscription
• 48.6% of them only aware about eBooks subscribed by the library,
51.4% of them are not.
• PUCL should conduct awareness programmes
• Another problem is eBooks subscribed by University is limited
subject areas
• So, 95.8% of them accesses eBooks online but not CDs or DVDs
formats.

44. E-Document & EBooks Usage
The problems usually faced by the users are:
• Downloading and accessing eBooks - 88%
• Slow network – 69%
• In finding out of eBooks - 14%
Action to be taken:
• Sometimes Wi-Fi network connection is slow
• Increasing the network bandwidth
• Conducting IL programmes regularly about awareness, IR
techniques or the searching interface provided by the
publishers.

45. II. User Feedback Form Analysis
User Feedback Form Analysis
• The user feedback form is collected during the time
of interactive session
Covering six sections:
– navigational features,
– screen design features,
– interactivity features,
– graphics,
– information searching, and
– user problems.

46. 1. Navigational Features
Users like and dislikes to navigational Features
Not
Navigational features Yes No Applicable
Contents pull-down menu 93% 3% 4%
Hyperlinked Index 97% 3% _
Navigational links 87.5% 12.5% _
Links to external web-pages 86% 11% 3%
Different colors for external and internal links 71% 29% _
Auto turning of pages 31% 68% 1%
Video panel 89% 11% _

47. User preference for different links in each page
• The respondents were asked to mark the links that they want in
each page.

48. Different ways of browsing pages
• Respondents were asked to choose the browsing/navigation
options, in which way they feels easy/comfortable.

49. 2. Screen Design Features
• optional color backgrounds,
• Zoom in and Zoom-out,
• mode of on-screen reading,
• flexible spacing between the texts.
• 31% of them prefer optional background behind the text but majority feel it
may distract the readers focus while reading an eBook.
• 69% of them preferred to have ‘+’ and ‘–’ signs because easy to identify
• 25% of them selected ‘%’ ; > 25% of them selected ‘ctrl +’ and ‘ctrl –’,
• However, 16% of them selected both ‘+’ or ‘–’ signs and % modes.
• 43% of them selected normal screen as on-screen reading mode
• 60% of them selected full screen (some of the designers provide 50-200% option)
• 71.5% of them preferred to have flexible spacing between words, lines
etc, though 28.5% of them found it not necessary.

50. 3. Interactivity Features
• highlighting text
• to show the URL of the hyperlink,
• adding bookmarks,
• adding comments,
• taking on-screen notes,
• printing on-screen notes,
• re-usage of text,
• printing of owned eBooks,
• saving images of eBooks,
• beep responses,
• help options.

51. Users preference to responses for
Interactivity Features
Not
Interactivity features Yes No Applicable
Highlighting 92% 8% _
URL view to the hyperlink 82% 7% 11%
Bookmarks 86% 13% 1%
Comments 92% 7% 1%
On-screen notes 88% 8% 4%
Printing of On-screen notes 82% 3% 15%
Help 93% 6% 1%
System beep responses 76% 21% 3%
Reuse of text 85% 15% _
Acceptance of non-reusable eBook 67% 14% 19%
Printing of owned commercial eBook 89% 11% _
Saving selected portion as image or ASCII text 65% 17% 18%

52. 3. Interactivity Features
• 92% of them preferred highlighting the text in the eBooks.
• 82% of them like to see the URL, when mouse goes over the
links.
• 86% of them like to add bookmarks while reading eBooks
• 49% of them preferred text bookmarks, 46% preferred page
bookmarks, 17% preferred URL bookmarks, 12% preferred
both types bookmarks.
• 92% of them would like to make comments in eBooks.
• 58% of them preferred to make comments in text form, 30%
preferred in A-V format

53. 4. Graphics
• Graphics is one of the important elements of any user interface
on which feedback is taken.
• Users preferences to responses on Graphics
Graphics Yes No Not
Applicable
Icon Labels 74% 26% _
Multimedia elements 88% 7% 5%
Change of pointer styles, when 78% 17% 5%
mouse cursor moves over an icon

54. 5. Information Searching
• Users preferences to information
searching features
Information Searching features Yes No Not Applicable
Multimedia searches 81% 18% 1%
Words/Phrase search 78% 22% _
Password protection 96% 3% 1%

55. 6. Users Problems while using eBooks
• Interactivity problems such as navigational features (36%),
• illogical icons (21%)
• unfamiliar options (6%).
• Problems due to distracting colors, uncomfortable font size, unreadable
font style, low quality text are focused as readability problems.
Users responses for readability problems

56. 6. Users Problems while using eBooks
• 36% of them faced navigational problems while using eBooks
• 61% of them complained that they have faced problems
because of unfamiliar options in the interface
• 21% of them faced problems due to illogical icons.
• 36% of them faced problems due to distracting colors
• 47% of them faced problems because of low quality text,
• 38% of them faced problems with uncomfortable font size
• 33% of them faced problem with unreadable fonts.

57. Conclusions
• Popular eBook publisher found in the Indian Universities
and educational institutions are - IEEE, ACM, netLibrary
and Safari.
• Commercial eBook publishers usually come with good
and innovative features to attract the subscribers / users.
• Each of those UIs are provided with different features by
considering the user group.

58. Common Features
of eBooks available in the Market
• Common Features - Bookmarking, highlighting, help facility
making comments, taking notes.
• Rare Features: turning pages, taking notes, sharing with
friends etc.
• Multimedia eBooks are produced by commercial eBook
publishers.
• Common interactive features : hyperlinked table of
contents, hyperlinked index, links to the external web pages,
optional background settings, password protection facility,
changing font size and colors, flexible word spacing, flexible
line spacing, icon labeling, video panel for navigation,
multimedia searches, word or phrase searches etc.

59. Unique Features
of eBooks from Printed Books
• Hyperlinked table of contents, hyperlinked index, links to the
external web pages, optional background settings, password
protection facility, changing font size, changing font colors,
flexible word spacing, flexible line spacing, icon labeling,
video panel for navigation, multimedia elements, multimedia
searches, word or phrase searches, making comments in the
form of audio and video etc.

60. Users’ Likes and Dislikes
about the Interface Features
• Users liked: hyperlinked table of contents, hyperlinked index,
links to the external web pages, protection facility, changing
font size & colors, flexible word spacing, flexible line spacing,
icon labeling, video panel for navigation, multimedia elements,
multimedia searches, word or phrase searches, making
comments in the form of audio and video etc.
• The disliked features are: optional background settings,
automatic turning pages.

61. Acceptability of UI’s Features of eBooks
• Accepted features: the features which offers them
better navigational facilities and helps them to be
more interactive with eBooks.
• Interesting features: optional background settings,
automatic turning pages etc. seemed to be
incorporated for the sake of visual effects are
accepted by less percentage of participants. (Some
also pointed as dislikes)

62. Users’ Problems
• Accessibility of eBooks is the major problem faced by the majority of the
respondents.
• Users are not aware of subscriptions agreement between the publisher
and the lib.
• So, accessibility and restrictions in using eBooks should be informed
clearly.
• Downloadable restrictions, printing restrictions should be spelled out to
the users.
• Interaction problems encountered based on their level of awareness,
usage and experience(N-E).
• Interaction problems - illogical icons, new and unfamiliar options are
problems while reading eBooks.
• User training programmes-orientation programmes, interactive sessions,
demo classes etc, will help the users
• Readability problems like unreadable font styles, distracting color
backgrounds, low quality text etc.

63. Features to be incorporated along with
Present Generation eBooks
• The features should not be complex to use, and meet general
reading habits of the users.
• To have password protection facility, word or phrase search,
flexibility to change color, size and style of the font etc.
• Multimedia eBooks with audio, video, animation etc. may be
included
• Creating extraordinary user interfaces vs. a user friendly
interface.
• Users do not prefer fashionable or maximum number of
features, but accepts the interface with minimum number of
applicable and useful features.
• The UI of future eBooks: should provide book meet the
needs of e-reading habit of users and make their reading
enjoyable more than printed books.

64. • Apple's iPad 2 is as fast as a Cray 2 supercomputer 25 years ago
• Today an iPad's graphics processing unit (GPU) bests the
performance over supercomputers of the early 1990s.
Apple iPhone 5 UI

65. What about Tomorrow?
A text-free UI to non-literate users

66. Any Questions please?
Thank You!!!

69. example, the iBooks app on the iPad.

70. a reader sees when searching on the
Nook iPad app

71. Current devices
The range of current devices?
• keyboard
• light pen, stylus
• mouse, touchpad, touch screen,
trackball, joystick
• microphone
• character terminals/bit-mapped screens
• audio

72. Future devices?
Common use soon?
• data gloves/suits (wearable computing)
• natural language
• head-up displays

73. Definition of eBook
Electronic book, eBook reader, eBook device, digital
book.
eBook is defined in four perspectives: Media, Device,
Delivery, and Content
1. Media: eBook as another kind of book in terms of media. It
is considered another e-format, or a digital object.
2. Device: The eBook has to be read by a specific device or
equipment composed of computer software or hardware.
3. Delivery: The eBook could be published on a website or
delivered directly over a network.
4. Content: The content of eBooks could be different from
paper books, and not tied to a physical object for
representation and distribution.
– There is a need for frequent updates of content (versioning is common).

75. Features of eBooks
• Portability, universal access, and multimedia experience
for users.
• eBook is coupled with a reading device either of computer
software or hardware.
• eBook is a single device with an entire library of interlinked
documents, dictionary lookup, unlimited, sharable
annotation, search capability, and so forth.
• It can have multimedia, searching, annotation, hyperlinks
and the incorporation of diverse eBooks and related
reference works.

76. Purpose of the Study
1. To examine various features provided by the eBook
publishers and their level of acceptance by users;
2. To ensure that the better usability is achieved by
technological advancements during the recent past;
3. To identify the best useful features to be
incorporated in the eBook design from the users
perspective.

78. Various types of ebook Readers

79. Navigational Features
• 93% of them found useful to have pull-down menu for
contents.
• 97% of them opinioned that hyperlinked index is useful.
• 86% of them feels that the external links are helpful to
access useful information directly with less effort.
• 71% of them felt that the external links and internal links
should be differentiated in colors for easy identification
• Unfortunately it is not standardized globally by the eBook
designers.
• It is resulting in some level of confusion between internal and
external links.