• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.141-152
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• 2014

The user interfaces of electronic-book (e-book) readers in the e-book market are highly diverse, and this has led to major usability issues. In this paper, we analyze user preferences in terms of feature-setting options and the use of touchscreen actions in the six most commonly used e-book readers for smartphnoes. We identify alternatives for these features, which can enhance the usability of e-book readers, based on these user preferences. The survey results for the feature-setting options show that it is desirable to support at least eight background colors, as well as the ability to specify the color of the background icons. Adjusting the screen brightness using a setting bar with the support of an auto-brightness option is desirable, as in using +/- buttons to adjust the font size, as well as approximately 10 font faces. We find that it is desirable to support fade, slide, scroll and curl page-turing options, in addition to a simple non-animated page-turning effect, and that page movement should be accomplished using a scroll bar with the support of the page movement features by entering a page number, and by using the table of contents as well as bookmarks. The survey results on the use of touchscreen options indicated that it is useful to be able to configure the screen layout of an e-book reader by dividing it into three areas: left, right, and center. And then, when users briefly touch the left and right areas, it is ideal to move to the previous and subsequent pages, respectively; and when they briefly touch the center region, it is desirable to display a touch feature menu. We believe that the results of this study may provide guidance in the design of user interfaces for e-book readers.