Space - the Final Chapter or Why Physical Representations are not Semantic Intentions

The term ‘hypertext’ evokes many images (e.g., nodes and links, semantic webs, nonlinear access and so forth) but perhaps one of the most common is that of users struggling to find their way around a complex information space. As a result, navigation has become a subject of great interest to many researchers in the field. In this chapter we will discuss navigation through hypertext in terms of its relevance as a concept as much as its presence as an issue and try to draw lessons for design and research from the psychological work that has been carried out on navigation in physical space. We will attempt to show that while relevant to hypertext, discussion of navigation is prone to difficulty when researchers and designers misapply arguments and evidence from the physical domain to the semantic domain.

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