Beyond The Navigation Problem

Years ago, hypertext writers and researchers were concerned that hypertexts would enmesh readers in a confusing tangle of links. Early research called this the Navigation Problem. People sought to solve it in many ways: by providing many navigational tools; by keeping links simple; by using fewer links; and by organizing the links very rigidly.

In time, experience with actual hypertexts and the development of the Web suggested that the Navigation Problem was less forbidding than it had seemed. Hypertext writers and researchers alike discovered that readers weren't getting lost, that occasional disorientation was common in all kinds of serious writing, and that muddled writing was more likely to be the source of confusion than hypertextual complexity.

Tech: The Navigation Problem