“Why . . . are readers on the Web less patient than readers of print? It is a common assumption that digital displays are inherently more difficult to read than ink on paper. Yet HCI [human-computer interaction] studies conducted in the late 1980’s proved that crisp black text on a white background can be read just as efficiently from a screen as from a printed page.
    The impatience of the digital reader arises from cultural habit, not from the essential character of display technologies. Users of Web sites have different expectations than users of print. They expect to feel ‘productive,’ not contemplative. They expect to be in search mode, not processing mode. Users also expect to be disappointed, distracted, and delayed by false leads. These screen-based behaviors are driving changes in design for print, while at the same time affirming print’s role as a place where extended reading can still occur.”

—Ellen Lupton, The Birth of the User, 2004; from Looking Closer Five: Critical Writings on Graphic Design, 2006.