This year Peter Loveland and Melissa Towriss (myself) took part in an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Placement for the Centre for Information Design Research in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. We aimed to analyse how quickly people read and how well they understood information presented in different styles. We also looked at what style people preferred and perceived as suitable for different circumstances. Working alongside Professor Alison Black we created a study in software called Superlab to gather our data.

The applications of this study could be relevant to future learning materials, as we will be able to see what kind of style people will prefer against how they actually perform. The findings could be used in the design of textbooks and other resources to help the audience perform better with memory retention or read faster as well as retaining information.

Throughout the course of the 6 week placement Peter and I have had many tasks to set up the study which we then took around the general public of the University of Reading campus. As designers, we developed the texts that were to be used, ensuring good consistent typography. The text was about PAYE (Pay As You Earn) and was kindly supplied by Government Digital Services as they showed an interest in our study. We worked together in designing the documents, which were to be shown on screen for our study.

Participants first read the text in one of four design styles. They then saw paired comparisons of different styles of the same information (a simple, structured text, as used currently on GOV.UK; a version designed to clarify text structure; a third visualized, with images relating to the text). We asked participants to make preference decisions based on different scenarios (i.e. which style do you think is the fastest to read, which do you think is best for memory retention?). Once the participants had answered the questions they answered multiple choice questions based on the text they read in initially (the preference task acted as a distractor) and we were able to judge how well they had read/remembered the text.

The placement brought a lot of experience and Peter and I highly recommend it to any future students considering taking their degree into research after graduation. It gives a true insight and scope into what stages are involved in research and when you find results at the end it feels very rewarding. Peter and I had the opportunity to work together which is uncommon for a UROP placement but it brought up a new friendship as well as first hand experience of a new world. As designers we are keen to apply what we have learned from this study to our future projects to ensure that our designs are not only aesthetically pleasing but also function in a manner which aids the audience. We hope this research is used to improve instructional materials to benefit others in society.

Sample texts used in the study: designed to clarify text structure and visualized with additional images

My name is Aoife Lintin and I am studying History at the University. My tutor is Dr Anne Lawrence, a Medieval Historian specialising in the History of Magic. Dr Lawrence is at present studying the History of Weather Forecasting.

The purpose of my UROP project is to study Almanacs. Almanacs were amongst other things the forerunners of the modern pocket diary containing all sorts of useful information for the ordinary individual and household. These included an accurate calendar, dates for the full moon, and lists of important dates and individuals like the Kings and Queens of England. They also made predictions for the weather and events of both political and national importance. They were important to the ordinary individual in the past as the calendar is to us today. Almanacs are in fact still sold today.

The compilers of Almanacs were scientific people who believed that as ‘the moon affects the tides then the planets must have an effect on the weather’. They used mathematics to work out the position of the stars and the planets and work out weather predictions from these. As the movements of the planets and stars can be predicted the weather was predicted for a whole year from the previous autumn. This was in fact using Astrology to foretell the weather. The heavens were divided into the signs of the Zodiac and it was these that were used for the predictions. Scientifically this theory has lost credibility. Yes the moon has an effect on the tides but the theory that a distant planet like Saturn can have an effect on the weather has come into question. Today meteorologists do not consider this form of Weather Forecasting valid.

My UROP project is to study, and make a Catalogue or Hand List of, different Almanacs in different departments in the University. Many have not been fully catalogued or studied before. It was thought that weather forecasting or meteorology started in the nineteenth century but this project proves that it started a lot earlier and is documented as being done as early as in the mid-sixteenth century, (the 1540s).

The research part includes a short study of Duty charged on almanacs. This was made law in the reign of Queen Anne in 1712 and must have been very lucrative, as there was a ten pound fine for non-payment, a lot of money at this time. It was the refusal of the American colonies to pay duty on printed material especially legal documents that started the move to American Independence. ‘No taxation without representation’, was their famous cry. This shows the importance of the duty tax at this time.

Among the collection there is a group of almanacs for the year 1807 and it is interesting to note that they give the same weather symbols and predictions for the weather for three of them. We know that weather forecasting is not an exact science. Was there a table for working out weather patterns? Or does this prove that compilers had a system that was universally accepted? It would be interesting to find out if the weather for 1807 agreed with these predictions.

I have also been very excited to find a fragment of an almanac whose printer was in operation in the 1540s. This could be the oldest surviving Almanac fragment in the University Collection. Research into this fragment is the business of ‘historical detective work’ and valuable experience for me as a historian.

I must at this point mention the wonderful staff at the Special Collections Reading Room. They are wonderful, a joy to work with and making my introduction to archive research a pleasure. Thank you.

Aoife Lintin

When you have something to say send me an email j.a.thompson@reading.ac.uk with the content; I’ll add you to the list of users- you’ll get a username and following approval from your supervisor your article will be posted

Matthew and Josh participated in the British Conference of Undergraduate Research in Plymouth in April, read their blog http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/classics-at-reading/2013/05/01/reading-classics-students-at-the-british-conference-of-undergraduate-research-2013/