The Hypertext Course
The Hypertext course that I am currently enrolled in (and for which I am creating this website, after my proposal was approved by Professor Miller,) has concentrated on discussion of Hypertext and Hypertextual theory. In other words, what is Hypertext, and how does Hypertext affect our daily lives? To aid in the discussion of these issues, part of the assignments for this course have been readings from two textbooks and then reading responses to those books and articles. (The other major assignment, besides the creation of this website, was the creation of another Hypertext.) The consensus that seems to have been drawn by my professor and my classmates is that Hypertext is the process of using "links" to bring together various bits of information. One may use Hypertext to help a reader navigate internally through a website, or one may use Hypertext to link the reader to information found in other websites or at other locations on the Internet.
I personally see Hypertext as being best used in non-fiction works (such as a research paper), where the links can take the reader to additional and relevant information. However, I also recognize that hypertextual links can also provide an "alternative means" for someone to navigate through a website. In A Traveler’s Diary, I have decided to offer the reader four options for moving/navigating through the site. First, the reader may choose to read through the site in a sequential, "flat" manner, moving forward and backward from one entry to the next. Second, the reader may choose to read through the site by reading entries which contain hyperlinks to additional information (some of which is contained in this site and some of which that is external.) Third, the reader may choose to move through the site reading the text unbroken by hyperlinks, but with the links appearing blow the text on the screen. Fourth, the reader may choose to move through a version of the site which has the hyperlinks appearing as "asterisks" as opposed to whole words/sentence fragments being hyperlinked. Finally, I am offering the reader an opportunity to "browse" through the site, selecting those just those entries that they want to reader.
I hope that through offering my reader these options I will allow the reader to feel more in control of their role as an audience for the site – after all, they will be allowed to choose how they want to interact with the text. However, this control is somewhat of an illusion, as I ultimately control what links are offered to the reader and to where those links eventually lead.
In deciding to organize this website with the different means of navigation I was trying to determine how best *I* like to read hypertexts. One of my main complaints about hypertexts is that I find the links to be a distraction from the text – they break my concentration, even for a millisecond, and I find that to be annoying. Also, I do not like having to move back and forth between linked pages, always trying to remember where I was on that page and what links I have and have not explored. My conclusion from this experiment? I actually like having the links set-off from the body of the text, so that I can concentrate on the text before exploring the links. However, I know that not everyone likes to read hypertexts in this manner, and I do think I have made the right decision in allowing the reader to determine how they wish to navigate the site.
This has been a challenging assignment in several ways. First has been the basic technology problems that I think most people in the class have fought with. However, I have also had to think, long and hard, about what I wanted this site to be and how I wanted to convey that to my reader. This has led to much introspection on my part, and also experimentation and exploration, as I have sought-out various sites and tried to determine why I like the navigation of one site over the navigation of another. In going through this process I feel that I have developed a greater understanding of what hypertext can offer the author (and the reader) and some different methods of thinking about navigation and movement through a website.