Speed of Reading Instructions for Creative Task Performance: Influence of Typography and Reading Media

Teachers often serve as creators of written instructions that students use to complete assignments. This research investigates whether the speed at which the instructions are read is impacted by different visual designs (such as typeface shape, colour, and layout) and the media through which they are presented (digital or traditional). The objective is to determine if these factors influence reading time; therefore, an experiment was carried out. The experiment employed a 5 × 5 Latin square design, with student participants reading the same task instructions in both digital (near and far) and traditional formats. Each set of instructions was presented in a different typographic solution. Reading times were self-recorded and analysed using ANOVA to assess the effects of typographic solutions and reading media. The study did not reveal any statistically significant differences in reading speed based on the colour of the text and background as well as typographic solutions. However, it did find a statistically significant variation between reading media, with variations between digital and traditional formats. These results are crucial for enhancing the design of instructional materials, suggesting the necessity of carefully considering reading media in educational contexts.