Lively alternative intro points:
A draft of a replacement for this page, including Ten Commandments of Good WWWeb Design.
A scathing critique of the Yale style manual.
A vindictive attack on a rival Joyce site.
HyperTerrorist's checklist of WWWeb design errors
<My recent posts> on hypertext and the WWWeb, courtesy Altavista
NEW: A timeline of hypertext evolution
Some thoughts about connecting hypertext design to basic cognitive science
NEW: More detailed thoughts on design and cog sci
These pages are an attempt to re-invent the familiar (flat, unannotated) style of resource lists like UIUC's excellent list of hypertext resources. Nobody on the WWWeb should be linking to materials unless they're familiar enough with them to give some sort of summary/recommendation/ rating. It just passes off the responsibility! So here's a digest of what I found on that list (and some others):
(Only the first few of the following summaries are linked to anything longer, yet.)
The varieties of hypertext:
- The primary advantage of hypertext over other formats is in keeping
extra detail in the background.
- Other uses for hypertext include: multi-path fiction, adding
suspense by delaying info display, annotating texts, collecting
diverse documents into 'anthologies', separating novice-level
material from advanced material.
Varieties of hypertext
Making hypertext navigable:
- Navigation among pages becomes disorienting unless a simple tree-
structure is used as a basis. Every page needs a consistent menu with:
home, up, previous, and next.
- 'Traditional' hypertext theory recommends one screen of info per
page. On the WWWeb, this seems too little.
Navigation in hypertext
Menus and maps:
- On the WWWeb, clickable graphics are a popular form of menu, but
they have some undesirable features. Ascii graphics are an interesting
alternative.
- Also, what text you highlight can make a great difference in
readability (etc).
Hypertext menus and maps
Making hypertext exportable to other sites
- If any arbitrary page of your hypertext can be accessed directly from
outside, you need to put clear identifiers on each page, with those
newcomers in mind. Titles should be comprehensible without other
explanatory context. Information about where you've come to
should be unobtrusively available on every page.
Maintaining a system with worldwide links
- The farther away in cyberspace your reader is, the more likely it is
there will be annoying delays. If you're trying to convey information,
it's better that it not be broken up into too-small chunks, or weighted
down with an unanticipated load of graphics. The reader needs to know,
before choosing a link, what's she's letting herself in for.
- Also, a system for automatically updating links when the target is relocated
is needed.
HTML issues: structure vs layout
- HTML is designer-unfriendly-- its whole raison d'etre is to make the
appearance of all documents uniform, so it imposes a broad set of
niggling rules about proper use of headers, whitespace, etc.
Platform issues: speed, reliability, graphics, whitespace
- On top of this straitjacket, there's the added complication that no two
web-browsers display HTML exactly the same, and that the most popular
among all of these--
Netscape/Mozilla-- has encouraged people to go beyond pure HTML, to increase
their control over layout.
Professionalism: grammar, spelling
- Finally, there are some basic principles of communication, like a
simple, direct style, and thorough proofreading for confusing grammar
and misspellings.
Here's some high-content sites to explore.
Here's some style mistakes to avoid.
My HTML/WWW wishlist
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