Design of Everyday Things - Norman, Don [112]
The next step in writing technology is already visible on the horizon: hypertext.9 Here we have another set of possibilities, another set of difficulties, in this case for both writer and reader. Writers frequently complain that the material they are trying to explain is complex, multidimensional. The ideas are all interconnected, and there is no single sequence of words to convey them properly. Moreover, readers vary enormously in skill, interest, and prior knowledge. Some need expansion of the most elementary ideas, some want more technical details.10 Some wish to focus on one set of topics, others find those uninteresting. How on earth can a single document satisfy them all, especially when that document must be in a linear sequence, words following words, chapters following chapters? It has always been considered part of the skill of a writer to be able to take otherwise chaotic material and order it appropriately for the reader. Hypertext relieves the author of this burden. In theory, it also frees the reader from the constraints of the linear order; the reader can pursue the material in whatever order seems most relevant or interesting.
Hypertext makes a virtue out of lack of organization, allowing ideas and thoughts to be juxtaposed at will. The writer throws out the ideas, attaching them to the page where they seem first relevant. The reader can take any path at all through the book. See an interesting word on the page, point at it, and the word expands into text. See a word you don’t understand, and a touch gives the definition. Who could be against such a wonderful idea?
Imagine that this book was in hypertext. How would it work? Well, I’ve used several devices that relate to hypertext: one is the footnote,11 another is parenthetical comments, and yet another is contrasting text. (I have tended not to use parenthetical asides in this book because I fear they distract, make the sentences longer, and add to the reader’s memory burden, as this parenthetical statement demonstrates.)
Contrasting text, when used as a commentary, is a kind of hypertext. Here is a comment on the text itself, optional and not essential to a first reading. The typography gives signals to the reader.
Actual hypertext will be written and read using a computer, of course, so that this commentary wouldn’t be visible unless it had been requested.
A footnote is essentially a signal that some comment is available to the reader. In hypertext, actual numbered footnotes will not be needed, but some sort of signal is still required. With hypertext, the signal that more information is available can be given through color, motion (such as flashing), or typeface. Touch the special word and the material appears; you don’t need a number.
So, what do you think of hypertext? Imagine trying to write something using it. The extra freedom also poses extra requirements. If hypertext really becomes available, especially in the fancy versions now being talked about—where words, sounds, video, computer graphics, simulations, and more are all available at the touch of the screen—well, it is hard to imagine anyone capable of preparing the material. It will take teams of people. I predict that there will be much experimentation, and much failure, before the dimensions of this new technology are fully explored and understood.
One thing that does bother me, however, is the belief that hypertext will save the author from having to put material in linear order. Wrong. To think this is to allow for sloppiness in writing and presentation. It is hard work to organize material, but that effort on the part of the writer is essential for the ease of the reader. Take away the need for this discipline and I fear that you pass the burden on to the reader, who may not be able to cope, and may not care to try. The advent of hypertext is apt to make writing