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courses in writing hypertext: issues and implications |
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Structure/Exploration Graphic user interfaces were designed to give people direct
control over their personal computers. Users now expect a level of design sophistication
from all graphic interfaces, including Web pages. The goal is to provide for the needs of
all of your potential users, adapting Web technology to their expectations, and never
requiring the reader to simply conform to an interface that puts unnecessary obstacles in
their paths. The structural rigidity that makes navigation simple and
ubiquitous, though it gives a hypertext the appearance of efficiency, can make that
hypertext seem sterile, inert, and distant. We may find excitement in individual pages,
but the hypertextual whole seems a mere shell enclosing variously interesting bits. Rigid
structure is often promoted for its efficiency and cost-effectiveness, particularly for
large Web sites, but excessive rigidity can be costly. Elizabeth Cooper
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