hypertext design
aaw5a@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu
Wed, 28 Feb 1996 00:28:51 -0500
It was mentioned in one of the readings that since hypertext is
still in its infancy there are many texts on the net that are
just that, texts. They lack many, if any, links and contain no
visual or audio clips. This struck me as being a bit weird.
Maybe I'm still in book mode and haven't fully latched on to the
whole hypermedia thing, but what is wrong with just text? Of
course it doesn't exploit the possibilities of the web, but Crime
and PUnishment doesn't have any pictures either. My point is
that the readings seemed to advocate sticking pictures with
everything and attaching audio clips just for the sake of
aesthetics and/or the fact that they could do so. Sure, pictures
are nice, but sometimes I feel that they don't really serve a
useful function except to make the page look prettier.
Personally, I get a bit overstimulated on some of these
commercial pages with all kinds of glitzy stuff on it. THis of
course doesn't even begin to address the fact that in creating a
truly hypermedia page, it takes for ever to load and the reader
gets bored. I guess what it boils down to is that I'm not
altogether convinced that this whole notion of what hypermedia is
is all that its cracked up to be. Call me a fuddy duddy, but if
I want to see pictures and hear some cool stuff, I'll watch mtv
or the learning channel. If I want to learn something, or read
an interesting article, I prefer to have the unadulterated text
before me without too many distractions.
Austin Wallace