Skim: Enhancing Reading Experience with Modified Words

Skim is a Chrome add-on developed by oeaeee that aims to investigate whether modifying the way words are displayed in New York Times (NYT) articles can enhance reading. The program explores the idea that obscuring characters in a word may not significantly impact legibility if the first and last letters remain intact. Additionally, it explores the concept that humans read based on the shapes of whole words rather than individual letters.

Skim offers three viewing options for NYT articles: DISEMVOWEL, SCRAMBLE, and SHAPES. In the DISEMVOWEL mode, all vowels are removed from the words. The SCRAMBLE mode shuffles the interior letters of the words, while the SHAPES mode masks the interior letters, revealing only the ascenders and descenders.

It is important to note that Skim is a quick prototype and may not be perfect. Due to time constraints, certain aspects like punctuation were left unaccounted for. However, if you are interested in contributing to the project, the source code is available on Github.