Reading with Hypermedia

Hypertext and hypermedia offers exciting possibilities to enhance the experience of traditional reading. At present, bibliophiles across the world are increasingly using computers to read books and recently Amazon.com announced that the sales of eBooks have surpassed printed books. This presents an opportunity for designers and technologists to introduce features that will enrich reading while retaining the aspects that differentiates it from browsing.

First things first, the Contents should be implemented with hypertexts as it simplifies the task to navigate to a particular section in one stroke. There should also be a link for the reader to move to the Contents from any part of the text. Other sections that are relevant but not directly part of the actual context like Preface, Copyrights and Author’s biography should also be made available through hypertext as it trims the size of the material and in the process makes it more succinct.

A few other features that align naturally and are implemented more efficiently with hypertexts are:

·         Index and Glossary

o    Hypertext based Index and Glossary will make referencing faster across the text

·         Text Search

o    This is not a feature from traditional text but will certainly be very useful for readers to look up particular words across the entire text

·         Errata

o    This section can link to the actual page and summarize the type of error

·         Bibliography, Citations and References

o    This will simplify the reader’s quest for reference and can provide a summary (or complete section where available) on readers’ demand

·         Appendix

o    Most often the material in Appendix is for the readers who would like to explore additional information and hypertext can conveniently relocate this away from the primary topic

Audio/Visual illustrations become extremely important to explain more complex material. Audio tools can provide actual pronunciations for foreign or technical words that are sparsely used. It can also be used in the right context to enhance the reading experience (e.g. the tapes of an historical speech or a first-hand description of a momentous event).

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. Visual illustrations could be static (e.g. a chart, table, video) or interactive (e.g. a simulation of an actual experiment that takes input from the reader). In both instances, visual aids could be an extremely powerful way to simplify the subject and learn more efficiently.

In summary, hypertext and hypermedia helps to innovate while authoring and to learn faster while reading and offers immense potential for learners in near future.