ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of academic studies on actual readers of translations. It shows that people can easily find links between reception studies and usability research. User experience, is an especially valuable concept to consider in connection with reception studies. The Italian university of Forli has been a particularly active center of research on the reception of audiovisual translations, most often dubbing. Reception can also be investigated by studying the kinds of reactions of which readers themselves may not be aware. The chapter introduces a number of studies that have investigated the reception of culture-bound references; humor; and linguistic and stylistic factors. The reception of culture-bound references has emerged as one popular research theme. The above studies demonstrate how existing reception research can benefit User-Centered Translation (UCT); the findings of these studies offer concrete suggestions of how culture-bound elements are processed by the recipients of translations.
