Abstract
In modern society, digital reading has become an essential ability in daily life. Reading assessment systems provide teachers with various digital texts and instant assistance to observe students’ reading performance and learning progress to make informed decisions on curriculum design or remedial instruction. In addition, students can have personalized learning experiences and practice self-regulated learning with systems at any time and place. Although there are already several reading platforms and assessment instruments on the market, research on these educational technology tools is relatively rare. The usability and user experience greatly influence learning effectiveness and continual usage willingness; therefore, this study aims to investigate user needs, improve the usability of reading assessment systems, and provide design strategies for developers. The presented study consists of three research stages: requirement analysis, proposing design strategies and prototypes, and user testing. This preliminary research focuses on middle school educators and learners, and our system environment is in Mandarin Chinese.