ATV
Closed Captioning
In this segment, we tested different caption window styles. "Caption window" refers to the background against which the caption appears. This background is traditionally black and adjusts to the size of the caption. With ATV, caption windows can take on different shapes, colors, degrees of transparency and can include features such as borders and shadows. We were limited in how many variations we could test and ended up testing several of these features in combination.
Although participants favored the solid black window, the translucent window was also rated highly. Some liked this feature because you could see the underlying video. Many felt the translucency could be quite helpful depending on the nature of the program (for example, when information was obscured by captions.) Features like colors and borders scored low with participants who felt that they were distracting and unnecessary.
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Caption Window Color
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All
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Deaf
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HoH
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Hearing
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Men
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Women
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Under 50
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Over 50
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No PC
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Black
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7.3
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7.3
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8.2
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6.9
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6.9
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7.6
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7.7
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6.9
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8.6
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Translucent
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7.1
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6.8
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6.3
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7.8
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6.5
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7.4
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6.7
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7.5
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7.5
|
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Yellow
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5.0
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4.5
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5.0
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5.4
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4.8
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5.1
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5.0
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4.9
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6.0
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Green
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4.3
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3.3
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4.8
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5.0
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4.4
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4.3
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4.3
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4.3
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5.0
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Border
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3.3
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2.5
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3.8
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3.9
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3.5
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3.3
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3.5
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3.2
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4.4
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TRANSLUCENT WINDOW WITH WHITE CAPTIONS (Figure 12)
The way the camera is panning and captions are moving, it made me feel nauseous. It could help, though, to see something behind. But it would be distracting long term because I am looking at two things. But transparency would be helpful with the news.
It needs a black background. I don't like this, it's too distracting. The less distraction, the better.
I liked it much better. I didn't block out what was behind so you could see it. It was maybe a little distracting but I'd rather have that than the color block and I'd rather be able to see more of the picture.
I still don't like the window. But this is better than the solid background.
Hard to tell. Parts I liked and parts I didn't. I liked being able to see through the block. On a lighter background it becomes harder to read the letters. It showed up better against the dark background.
I didn't care for being able to see through the window. It's much clearer and less distracting if it is solid. I find myself looking through the window.
YELLOW WINDOW WITH BLACK CAPTIONS (Figure 13)
It was very easy to read but I don't like the yellow. The color demands too much attention. Any color would be too distracting, black is nice and neutral.
I'm not crazy about that background. It is a little too dominant. The color was too bright. The yellow stands out and "blasts" to me.
Very good. It's almost as easy to read as the white on black. It's a good shade of yellow. But a little distracting in it's vividness.
I didn't like that because it stands out too much. You can't ignore it if you want to.
I didn't care for that. Both the color and the rectangle seemed intrusive.
GREEN WINDOW WITH WHITE CAPTIONS (Figure 14)
I don't like that at all. The white and green are both bright colors. the white seems to dance. The contrast gets weird. Too jarring.
I don't like it. The green with the white was bad. I prefer the black print better than white print. I like this window better but the contrast of the first was better.
Difficult to read. I think the colored background was distracting.
Too much green. It draws my attention from the rest of the picture.
I like that but I am partial to green. I liked the green and white
Bad. It wasn't readable. Day-glo.
I prefer to see letters that are darker. The yellow and green backgrounds were equal but there was too much focus on the background.
BLUE WINDOW WITH YELLOW CAPTIONS, YELLOW BORDER (Figure 15)
It was too much color. Too fancy. What's the purpose of that? It's unnecessary. I don't like the border. No purpose. It would be distracting. Keep it simple.
The border made this pretty challenging.
The three colors were distracting and ugly.
It looks lovely but it is too pleasing to the eyes to be good for his captions because it would draw attention from the picture. I find this more distracting. I like the border.
I liked that. It was nice and soothing.
Oh, no! Too much!
This segment of the tape featured a rectangular-shaped window, rather than the traditional background which adjusts to fit each row of the caption (which we referred to as "shrink-to-fit"). Most participants did not notice the difference until it was pointed out to them. Once it was pointed out, the participants expressed a preference for the "shrink-to-fit" style. They felt that the rectangular shape covered up too much of the screen and called attention to itself.
RECTANGULAR VS. SHRINK-TO-FIT
It doesn't make a difference to me if the window is a rectangle but it might cover up more.
I prefer the shrink-to-fit window.
The rectangular shape made the window too big.
I wasn't aware of the shape difference but I think shrink-to-fit is better.
I liked the shrink to fit block because it is a visual clue of how much text you will have to read.
It doesn't need the rectangle.
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