Critical reading in design education: Effects of layout on experts’ and novices’ visual attention and reading performance

Abstract

This study constructs a three-layer theoretical framework for critical reading aiming to explore the visual attention and reading performance of design students in critical reading. Specifically, we compared the performance of expert (more than three years) and novice (less than four months) design students when reading different layout configurations of a product design plan. A total of 80 participants, 40 experts and 40 novices, were recruited from a Chinese university. Using a 2 (expertise: expert vs. novice) × 2 (layout: text-image proximity vs. text-image separation) experimental design, participants' recall, insight scores, visual attention distribution and visual attention transition were analyzed. Eye-tracking data revealed that experts allocated significantly more visual attention to images and exhibited more complex fixation transitions between images and texts, suggesting higher levels of critical engagement. In contrast, novices displayed a more linear reading pattern, particularly in layouts that separated images from texts. Correspondingly, experts outperformed novices in both recall and insight scores. Additionally, layout configurations had a more complex impact on visual attention and performance. In the second layout, fixation time on images showed a positive correlation with insight, and experts exhibited fixation transitions between images. The results provide valuable insights for design educators, emphasizing the need for tailored instructional strategies to foster critical thinking skills in students at different educational levels.