Thoughts of the web and hyperlinks

Thoughtful designers lead visitors not only to the answer to their question but to better questions as well.

Highways are judged by efficiency: distance, cost, safety, and time. Garden paths play a different role; they lead us through the best routes, not the shortest. They may bend to pace our journey, curving here to reveal a view, twisting there to lead us through a shady grove or a sunny clearing.

Make an OSS version of it for the web: why not building on the web for the web?

eine neue Literaturgattung, bei der sich die tradierten Strukturen von Erzählungen in offene, für den Leser unerwartete Strukturen auflösen. Vielfältige Rezeptionswege werden durch die Möglichkeit, im Text zu springen, möglich. Der Leser wird dabei durch seine Auswahlentscheidungen zum Mitproduzenten des Textes.

Rigid hypertext is streetscape and corporate office: simple, orderly, unsurprising. We may find the scale impressive, we admire the richness of materials, but we soon tire of the repetitive view. We enter to get something we need: once our task is done we are unlikely to linger. We know what to expect, and we rarely receive anything more.

(In context of web gardening)

1. Many hypertexts do not require elaborate navigational apparatus.
2. Rigid hypertext structure is costly.
3. The shortest path is not always the best.
4. Large hypertexts and Web sites must often contain both parks and gardens.
5. Use punctuation sparingly; unwanted interruptions are tiresome and intrusive.
6. The boundaries of parks should be especially clear, lest readers see them as mere wilderness.
7. Rigid structure makes a large hypertext seem smaller. Complex and intricate structure makes a small hypertext seem larger, inviting deeper and more thoughtful exploration.

At times, wilderness is exactly what readers want: a rich collection of resources and links. At times, rigid formality suits readers perfectly, providing precisely the information they want, no more and no less. Indeed, individual hypertexts and Web sites may contain sections that tend toward each extreme.

Often, however, designers should strive for the comfort, interest, and habitability of parks and gardens: places that invite visitors to remain, and that are designed to engage and delight them, to invite them to linger, to explore, and to reflect.