Information Visualization: Times Square Method (TSM)
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Created: User:Aadhar14b
(30 Jun 2009)
Reviewed: SannaH
(07 May 2012)
Last edited: hamishwillee
(09 May 2012)
Contents |
What is Times Square Method (TSM)?
TSM also known as ‘Leading’ is a presentation technique of displaying information (usually text) dynamically in a limited space, in which the text (word or sentence) scrolls autonomously in one line and horizontally across the screen from right to left.
Above is an example of TSM visual presentation
Benefits of TSM
- Requires limited space to display text, which can address the typical design issue in mobile - small screen.
- Speed reading – Proven to be as fast as Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP).
- It facilitates visually disabled people to read more comfortably.
Limitations of TSM
- In case of smooth scrolling of text is not happening, TSM can cause stress while reading.
- In some implementations of TSM, next sentence appears only when the last word of current sentence completely scrolls to the right. Till that point the left space of the screen is unused and delay can be noticeable especially for sentences having just couple of words.
- Attentional demands are high as it is important to catch the text contents in moving sentences.
Practical Usage
- News, Stock price, etc. Widgets.
- Web Browsers - Can be used to read specific content in the web site.
- Document Reader Applications – applications that help in text reading can provide option for TSM for a selected page, paragraph or any other specific selection.
TSM Design Guidelines
- An application using TSM should provide options to turn TSM reading on/off – it should not be mandatory to read the information in the application through TSM, because all users might not be comfortable with it.
- Provide ‘setting options’ for TSM
- Text size, color and font.
- Scroll Direction.
- Speed of scrolling.
- Scroll by letter, word or sentence.
- Provide easily accessible option to ‘pause’, so that user will not miss any information during pause operation.
- Provide easily accessible option to ‘scroll back’ to previous chunk of information.
- Completion Indicator – Allow user to know how far they have read and how much more is remaining; use a graphical meter to show the same.
--Submitted by - Aadhar14b, 30 June 2009
22 Sep
2009
This article discusses a useful method of presenting information known as the Times Square Method (named after Times Square in New York, where this technique of presenting information has been used for a long time). This method displays information to the user by scrolling text across the screen, usually at the top or bottom of the display. This method has in recent times becomes popular in news broadcasts. In terms of mobile applications has the advantage of allowing us to overcome limitations in terms of screen size, but scrolling large amounts of text across the same piece of screen space.
Despite the advantage of allowing lots of information to effectively share the same screen space, this technique does have some potential drawbacks, which this article does well to identify. Probably the most significant problem is that this way of displaying information requires quite a lot of visual attention. Furthermore, the movement of the text across the screen can be distracting. In addition, not all users will be comfortable with the same scrolling speed and care needs to be taken to localize the direction of scrolling according to the user’s language. While it is common for Western languages to read from left to right, this is not true for all languages.
The article provides some useful advice for addressing the potential usability problems of the Times Square Method. Providing customization options is extremely important, as users need to be able to adjust attributes the speed, directionality, font and color according to their personal preferences. This will help to ensure that users are comfortable using the “ticker” as it conforms to their requirements. Another common problem with these sort of ticker controls is that users will often only catch the last few words of a sentence which might grab their attention. It is important, therefore, that users be able to scroll back to read the full sentence if they so desire.