26 Onstream Heat map created by researchers showing where more subjects tend to read, and where they do not. There are two lessons of the F-pattern: 2. Search engines cause users to expect information • Screen readers do not read everything. Especially quickly, without much thought. In the past, readers with long texts, web designers find that screen readers expected reading a book to be a process of discovery do not read; they skim. in which it would take time to find information.   • Screen readers look for structure. Screen readers Today, search engines like Google and legal-search spend much of their reading time looking down the engines cause readers to expect to obtain information left side of the page for signs of structure such as quickly. Because searches are easy to formulate, they paragraph breaks, the beginning of headings, bullet require very little thinking to find information. Readers points, and lists. Understanding the structure helps the now expect the same qualities of documents. When screen reader process the information more quickly. they approach a document, they expect to locate the necessary information in it as quickly and easily as Unlike paper readers, who tend to study a text, screen they locate information through a Google search. readers are rapid-information gatherers who must 3. Multiple-window screens promote multitasking. skim and use the visible structure of the text to identify Multi-tasking operating systems, like Windows, enable important information. users to jump rapidly from one program to another and one document to another. As a result, screen Consider how you are reading this article. Are you reading readers typically multitask more often than paper on a screen, or have you printed it on paper to study? readers. Studies suggest that this new multitasking Are you skimming, or are you reading line by line? In all environment is not ideal for high-level thinking. When likelihood, you are not reading it the same way that most we read in a windows-type environment, we tend to people would have read a print article 20 years ago. be distracted by emails or information on the Internet. With each distraction, it becomes more difficult Why has this change in reading occurred? The reasons to follow the thread of a long text or a densely emanate from the differences between print and screen structured argument. media. There are particular characteristics of the screen environment that encourage rapid, impatient, and 4. Email results in frequent distractions. Like most distracted reading: office workers, when judicial readers use a screen 1. The Internet is a constant source of information, environment they likely are receiving frequent entertainment, and distraction. In a screen interruption while they are reading the legal environment, skimming is a necessary adaptation argument. Many e-mail applications announce because of the increased amount of available new messages with sounds, vibrations, or pop-up information. The PC has created a culture of rapidnotifications. As a result, judicial readers cannot information gatherers. Screen readers do not have the be expected to have the same focus and sustained time or patience to read word-for-word. They need to attention than they did in a pre-e-mail world. gather information rapidly because there is so much more information to gather. We are not suggesting that judges reading on screens will read in the same haphazard fashion as the average © 2013 Xchanging