Bionic Reading

Have you ever heard of Bionic Reading before?

About a week ago there was this reddit post in r/interestingasfuck and from there it went through the internet. The sample text used by Bionic Reading GmbH to advertise its technology could be seen everywhere on social media.

Typoglycaemia

It is a similar effect to typoglycaemia. It is the ability to read a paragraph like the following despite the jumbled words.

Aoccdrnig to a research at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Your could read it, couldnt you? Despite the typo (rscheearch cannot spell the word “researcher”), it can be read and understood by almost anyone fluent in English.

Off topic for a moment: Is typoglycaemia real? I can recommend this article, which explains this in detail. For here and now, it is only important to know that it only works with short words and that function words like “be” must not be affected. And most importantly: the passage is readable because it’s predictable (especially because we’ve seen it so many times).

At first glance Bionic reading looks similar. However, it can be a real advantage if you want to read a text-heavy website quickly and find the information you need. It help some people.

Impact on UX

Could the concept of Bionic Reading make its way into ux design?

Honestly I dont know if this trend really works. I couldn’t find any research about that topic. It reeminds me on the speed reading ads years ago for online speed reading apps and courses. The starting point was to underline the first syllables of a word, which is the “support wheel”. At some point you can read like that without text decoration. What bothers me: the “as before” texts are covered with all the tricks - a bit greyer and a typeface with lousy kerning and everything sans serif. This is no fair play. Additionally: Some may question the elegance of regular bolding of syllables, and in short sentences it might not make any sense. There are also concerns about how it fits with the traditional use of bold, for example to highlight parts of a sentence.

I look forward to the research and it may make sense, maybe only as a gimmick with an on-off switch. I will give it a Benefit of a doubt.