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User Interface Issues
Although many designs exist for hypertext navigation, the
problems of disorientation and
cognitive overhead still
persist. In a true hypertext system, users must be able
to move freely through the system according to their
needs, without getting lost either spatially or
cognitively.
The facilities to navigate through a hypertext database
must be at least as rich as those available in books.
Many user interface solutions have been developed by
different groups of researchers. However, all these
designs have been ad hoc approaches to navigation
problems. There has been no systematic and
comprehensive approach to user interface design for
hypertext systems. A set of fourteen user interface
design guidelines were presented in this review paper.
In addition to following these guidelines, it will be
highly beneficial to integrate existing navigational
tools and study the effectiveness of such a systematic
and comprehensive approach.
Also, formal methods need to be developed for usability
testing and evaluation of hypertext systems.
Navigation techniques and evaluation measures must be
based on the organizational setting, the targeted task
domain, the typical user population, and the desired
outcomes of navigation. Experiments must also be
conducted to evaluate the effect of deliberately
incorporating disorientation and cognitive overhead in
learning systems in order to encourage exploration and
learning.
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