We examined the benefits of animated scrolling using four speeds and three different document types in terms of task speed, accuracy and user preference. We considered reading tasks involving unformatted and d text documents, as well as counting tasks involving abstract symbol documents. We found that, compared with non-animated scrolling, animated scrolling significantly improves average task time, by up to 3.1% using 300 millisecond animations for reading documents and by up to 24% at 500 milliseconds for symbol documents. Animated scrolling also significantly decreases error rates for reading tasks by up to 54%, as well as improving subjective satisfaction.
Christian Klein, Benjamin B. Bederson