An experiment was designed with four independent variables for Chinese information displays on video display terminals (VDTs): (1) character spacing, (2) display control (scrolling or paging), (3) scrolling speed, and (4) display format (horizontal or vertical). The dependent variables were visual fatigue and performance measures including fault detection, reading speed, and comprehension level. Sixty university students participated in the experiment and read an BOOO-word article on the VDT. The results revealed that some interaction and main effects were significant, and recommendations were made for the design of Chinese information displays that could be applied to office automation systems.
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