Bionic Reading: A new method for reading faster or just another gimmick?
What if a simple font tool could more than double the speed at which you are able to read? That’s one of the claims being made by advocates of something called Bionic Reading, hailed as a great leap forward for power readers as well as those with ADHD.
Bionic Reading is a tool created recently by Renato Casutt and Roger Capaul. Casutt is a Swiss typographic designer who set out to design a system to increase the speed at which the brain reads.
It works very simply: the first few letters of each word are bolded, to give the brain quick “fixation points” that allow it to progress more quickly through the text. An example:
“As a result, the reader is only focusing on the highlighted initial letters and lets the brain center complete the word. In a digital world dominated by shallow forms of reading, Bionic Reading aims to encourage a more in-depth reading and understanding of written content.”
Bionic Reading has plenty of acolytes. Some claim things like it feels like “unlocking 100 per cent of your brain,” and others see applications for dyslexia and ADHD.
But does it actually work?
Casutt’s claims of the effectiveness are, admittedly, a little thin ― before releasing the Bionic Reading app, he tested it on only 12 readers, though said that most readers had a “positive” experience with it.
But as with many things to do with reading habits, it’s probably personal: some will find formatting like Bionic Reading helpful, others won’t.
There have been many tools like Bionic Reading released over the years that promise to increase reading speed – like Blinkist, for example, which condenses books into 15-minute text explainers.
In the end, they are tools, not panacea. When reading as quickly as possible is valuable (grad school, anyone?), Bionic Reading might be a great tool. When getting lost in a novel is what you want, you may prefer to slow down. “Readers would miss that if they read through the bionic lens,” writes Daniel Lavelle at The Guardian, “where everything becomes supercharged as if the writer was scribbling during a massive speed binge. Still, it would improve Wuthering Heights.”
Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.