eBook readers: user satisfaction and usability issues

This article aims to present a comprehensive evaluation of user satisfaction and usability concerns related to five of the leading eBook readers including: the Amazon Kindle; the Apple iPad MB292LL/A; Barnes & Noble's Nook BNRV100; Borders' kobo reader N647‐BUS‐S; and the Sony Digital Reader PRs‐950.

This study is based on a survey of 81 information studies graduate students, who responded about their ownership of specific readers, their likes and dislikes as well as perceived issues. Additionally, interested respondents were asked to volunteer for an ethnographic journaling study which allowed eight prospective users to live with each of the five eBook readers for a weekend or longer.

The authors found that the Kindle is the most popular, but regardless of reader the respondents disliked the poor navigation and inability to loan titles in their collection. In addition, the respondents also liked the portability of the readers as well as the ability to have multiple books on a single reader. However, they also identified a major issue: notably, the licensing of titles versus outright ownership. In contrast to some other published reports, the respondents did not value non‐Roman script support or color display.

One of the first comprehensive surveys to analyze the top five eBook readers for user satisfaction and to identify usability concerns.