Instructional information in adaptive spatial hypertext
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Spatial hypertext is an effective medium for the delivery of help and instructional information on the Web. Spatial hypertext's intrinsic features allow documents to visually reflect the inherent structure of the information space and represent implicit relationships between information objects. This work presents a study of the effectiveness of spatial hypertext as medium for delivery of instructional information. Results were gathered based on direct observation of the people reading a spatial hypertext document which was used as informational support for a complex task. Two versions of the spatial hypertext document were used: a non-adaptive and an adaptive. The document was adapted based upon the inferred relevance of information to the user's knowledge and task requirements. The study produced insights on emergent reading strategies such as informed link traversals and the use of collections as bookmarks. Observations and evaluation of how people interacted with both document versions showed that the spatial layout and the use of collections as a way to encapsulate information allowed people to read, browse and navigate very large information spaces while maintaining a clear understanding the structure of the information. Finally, several differences between the adaptive and non-adaptive versions were identified, showing that adaptation alters not only the display of information but the way that people read spatial hypertext documents.
