Structuring hypertext

Abstract

With the many new opportunities for text-handling created by the associative form of hypertext come the possible user problems of disorientation, high cognitive load, and low precision access. The possibility of dynamic hierarchical structuring of the hyperdocument is introduced. This allows the creation of multiple views (or frameworks) within which the viewer can browse, introduces a number of visualisation strategies, allows simple information filtering, and simplifies navigation within an intuitive user model of the hypertext system. This is expected to address the problems of disorientation and high cognitive loading, while improving access precision may require artificial intelligence techniques. The development of a hypertext test-bed, SuperText, to evaluate these possibilities is described.