Navigation in Hypertext

Visual Indications

Visual indications can be used to give readers information about lexia's identity (such as header icon informing readers that this lexia belongs to a particular web or subweb), location (such as different backgrounds, colors indicating different locations), and relation to others (such as footer icons). Readers when facing these indications can know where they are, going to the lexia's upper level and getting an overview. Therefore, they can be used as means of navigation and orientation.

For instance, the headers in every lexia of the Victorian Web show the particular web that the lexias belong to.

Source: http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/index.html

In addition, readers can use footer icons in each lexia to go to the overview of the upper level:

Source: http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/index.html

[Landow, p147] described the Cyberspace, Hypertext, and Critical Theory Web as an illustration for the effectiveness of visual indications for large or complex collections of interlinked lexias. It has not only course materials and links to many external web sites but also a collection of elaborate individual student projects, some consisting of more than one hundred lexias and graphic elements.

Last modified: 6 Nov 2002 by Kathy Nguyen Dang