Hypertext Articles 4-9-08

Patterns of Hypertext: Mark Bernstein talks about how they once thought that large, irregular link networks would overwhelm readers, but they find that it actually attracts readers. He also says that the growth of literary and scholarly hypertext, the evolution of the Web, and the economics of link exchange all assure the long-term importance of links. This is interesting because it's true. Nowadays everything is online, and links are essential to the creation of online websites. Especially with school, many of the things we do for class are done online.

Hypertext Narrative and Baseball: It was really interesting to see hypertext narrative compared to baseball because I would never compare those two things or put them together. It did make a lot of sense though. The cycles was intersting too think about because both hypertext and baseball are a series of cycles. I also thought of the idea of coming full circle...going around the bases and back home for baseball, and going around the links/website and back home for hypertext. The ideas of chapters was also interesting to think about because each page is like a chapter for hypertext, and each inning is like a chapter in a baseball game. The idea of montage was also interesting because there are a variety of choices to do in both a baseball game and on a website. We choose to follow this link of that link. In a baseball game the pitcher decides to throw the ball to the catcher or throw the ball to the third basemantry to tag out the player at third. Both are a variety of several choices. Which choice you make will depend on the outcome.

Beyond Usability and Design: The Narrative Web: I found this article to be amusing. He wrote it with a lot of personality that drew me as a reader in. By making it a race, it was funny to see him comment on it like he was the announcer. He says that the reader’s journey through our site is a narrative experience, and it is our job to make it interesting for them. We need to give them an unforgettable experience to keep them coming back for more, and in order to do this we must create a story, and in order to do that we must give them choices. Any sort of story will interest people, we just need to make it natural. Show who you are instead of telling. People are not effected if you merely give them bland information; it will have no impact on them. It is when you show them that they are moved.