By Jakob Nielsen
Communications of the ACM,
March 1990,
Vol. 33 No. 3, Pages 296-310
10.1145/77481.77483
Comments
Hypertext (3), (19), (25) is becoming a popular approach to many computer applications, especially those dealing with the on-line presentation of large amounts of loosely structured information such as on-line documentation or computer-aided learning. There are still many issues concerning hypertext that remain to be resolved, however, many of which are in the user interface area. One of the major usability problems with hypertext is the user's risk of disorientation while navigating the information space. For example, our studies [23] showed that 56 percent of the readers of a document written in one of the most popular commercial hypertext systems agreed fully or partly with the statement I was often confused about ‘where I was. ’ To investigate a number of user interface options in hypertext systems we designed a prototype system in the form of a hypertext report on events at the 1987 hypertext workshop. This system was implemented on an Apple Macintosh with Hypercard as the programming system. (To get a feel for our hypertext system, the reader is encouraged to review Figures 1 to 10 which contain screen dumps of a session with the system and thus constitute a kind of printed demonstration or guided tour.) Hypertext is a very dynamic form of human-computer interaction and can only be fully appreciated in an interactive environment. However, even these figures give a much better understanding of the system than a traditional textual description could give.
The full text of this article is premium content
No entries found
Log in to Read the Full Article
Need Access?
Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.
Create a Web Account
If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.
Join the ACM
Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.
Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine
Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.
Purchase the Article
Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.
