Click on the title to see a list of pages that talk about navigating HyperMedia.
References
- Gloor, P. A. (1997) ''Elements of hypermedia design<nowiki>
- </nowiki> Techniques for navigation. Boston: Birkhäuser. : Old and boring. --ss''
There are various aspects to navigation in CyberSpace. First, indexing: how do you do it, if at all?
- A ForwardIndex provides the most flexibility, presenting exactly what you want exactly how you want it, and consequently has the highest maintenance cost.
- A ReverseIndex sacrifices presentation flexibility for cheaper maintenance.
- Many automatic indexes can be found on the IndexingScheme page, sacrificing flexibility for mass data-mining.
- You might also consider creating some PathsInHypermedia instead of an index. One example, albeit an inter-site one, is the wiki TourBus.
- CategoryCartography covers how to map CyberSpace in the first place.
Second, how do you present your navigation structure?
- A BookMetaphor is a very familiar interface, potentially reducing redundancy and illogic in a site, but at the expense of power to the users.
- HubAndSpoke is the dominant navigational method used when browsing the web. This has implication for how wide and deep to make your navigation structure. InterfaceHyperdepth also discusses this trade-off.
- The VisualThesaurus has a lovely 3D Java interface showing how words connect. This is just a part of CategoryInformationVisualization.
- A VirtualReality interface may be possible someday.
How do you connect related sites?
- A WebRing is a hazy notion of creating a ring (or alternatively a dense set of connections) between related sites.
- Generalising the WebRing is WebWeb. Though perhaps this is covered by part of WebRing? Decide for yourself; this page is an argument from April 2001.
Finally, no theory is complete without studies:
- The StanfordPoynterProject investigates how people read news on the web.
- WhenKidsUseTheWeb wonders about the younger users of the 'net.