Hypertext design environments and the hypertext design process

Abstract

Hypertext engineering environments can be modeled to a certain degree on software engineering development environments.For example, designing the conceptual hypertext data model and abstract navigational model [22] can benefit directly from software engineering approaches.Fundamental differences, however, make a pure transposition of techniques both difficult and inadequate.An important part of hypertext design concerns aesthetic and cognitive aspects that software engineering environments do not support.This article focuses on the hypertext 1 design task itself as a computer-supported activity.In it we provide guidelines for developers of hypermedia design environments to facilitate the user's design process.A hypertext design environment can support both formal hypermedia design techniques and the actual design process successfully.While we take advantage of object-oriented terminology to describe certain concepts, the lessons of this article apply to all formal design techniques.Thus we neither proscribe nor detail a formal design model.Instead we examine the general human-factor aspects of the design process to determine which features help designers most.We also enumerate the requirements hypermedia design environments have that other types of computer applications do not.This analysis arises from observing users and students during design tasks, and is grounded in sound and well-known results in cognitive science.It builds upon our experience in developing LIRMM's MacWeb 2 hypermedia development environment [14][15][16]. Dimensions of the Hypertext Design ActivityOne may consider hypermedia design, as with any other