Caffeinate Your Hypertext

Zarf's Adventure Homepage

Let's move from guessing to exploring. Zarfhome is just the personal Website of some guy named Andrew Plotkin. However, that guy just happens to be very creative when it comes to hypertext.

I found his site while looking for an ambient sound generator, but I liked the very clever way he organized his site. Since Andrew writes interactive fiction computer games, he organized his Website like a text adventure game. Other sites Andrew works on are equally clever. The Wunderland Toast Society organizes content with a matrix of author faces and names. The Dan & Eric Recipe Circle is equally interesting, and ties recipes with art.

There are probably thousands of interesting and creative personal Websites. I just happened to pick out Andrew Plotkin. Rather than creating a run-of-the-mill personal site, Andrew chose to create a Web experience for his readers. As a computer fiction writer, Andrew tries to hook the reader into reading more of his site. It worked on me; I went for a soundscape tool and ended up reading his recipe for figgy pudding. That takes skill.

ExplorePAHistory.com

So long as we're thinking about molding an experience, let's take a look at ExplorePAHistory.com. One of the best sites I have ever visited, ExplorePAHistory contains numerous examples of great hypertext authoring.

Exploration and Web Experience

So far, we've seen sites that organize little islands with airports. Even Wikis segment information into isolated nodes. Ted Nelson, who coined the term "hypertext" (20 years after Vannevar's Memex), has often criticized the Web for this problem. With links, you don't always know what you're getting into, you have no idea what the next page will really be. Even with great sites, there's still a bit of uncertainty. This uncertainty can sometimes be fun; I have laced this article with numerous incidental links to interesting sites. But it can feel awkward.

ExplorePAHistory has taken a different approach. Remember their "Continue The Story" link? This is one way they lead the reader on while maintaining the exploratory feel. Furthermore, the site enables real research and exploration. Every article contains links to information on historical places to visit. They link to every diary, every letter, every newspaper they use as a source; students can study the topic in more detail by clicking "original documents". Videos and pictures are also easily accessible.

To make the exploration experience fit their users, they have different categories for teachers and students. If you look closely, you will also notice some icons in out-of-the-way places for those familiar with the site. These methods used by ExplorePAHistory accommodate both experienced Web users and new Web users.

Roadsign Organization

ExplorePAHistory also lets viewers navigate the site by roadsign. Since 1946, the state of Pennsylvania in the USA has been placing historical signs in places where interesting things happened or famous people lived. Since I live in Pennsylvania, I see them all the time.

It's impossible to travel into Pennsylvania without seeing one of these signs.

Realizing this, the clever people at ExplorePAHistory used the ubiquitous signs as an organizational tool. It's a perfect example of how hypertext can fit the unique needs of your Website content.
ExplorePAHistory.com contains a number of other interesting techniques, but I'll let you explore them yourself. It's time to run away from written text and take a peek at graphical hypertext.

Snarg: Purely Graphical Hypertext

Snarg.net is one of the weirdest sites I have ever used. It's art… at least, I think it's art. The homepage is simple. In fact, it's too simple. Wait long enough, and a slideshow starts. Click the #. You're now greeted with the obvious choices "squee" and "framina". Squee is a little easier to use. Basically, just keep clicking things, and other stuff will happen.

The site has many many levels of hidden information. One page I found states that the site was created in 1995. In a section labeled "why", the words "just because" appear with a link to a Just Because Page. Another area links to Essays and Squee, something called posi-web, an area named More questions, and several others.

Snarg is strangely compelling. The site is designed to be cryptic -- that's the appeal. If everything were easy to find, the site would not be nearly so interesting. But the weird graphics, vast number of buttons, and the feeling that something interesting might be just around the corner keeps me clicking. Does it do the same for you?

I do not purport to understand Snarg. I don't think the author would purport to understand it either. But it's an interesting example of hypertext without many words that still manages to captivate people and keep them looking.

Image Galleries

Now that we're firmly entrenched in the visual, let's look at sites that are more image-oriented. Keep your eye out for interesting ideas; some techniques popular in image sites may be useful in more text-oriented sites.

Most image galleries display images like the Google Image Search. They display a simple matrix of clickable thumbnails. Has anyone ever tried a clickable matrix of text content thumbnails?

The people at take a great approach to their photo gallery site. They don't just throw a bunch of images together or pair a paragraph with each image. Instead, they write an overview of the area they photograph and include profuse links to the photos within the text of the article. I like the site; it provides great photos and interesting information in one nifty package.

Institute of Official Cheer

Looking at the slideshows in the Institute of Official Cheer has given me many laughs over the years. Lileks combines scans of old advertising and cookbooks with extremely funny commentary. Where else would you read the story of bread?

Lileks does a good job of combining text with his images into an online slideshow. He has a fun site which feels natural. This is odd, because he has broken one of the canon rules of Web design: index every page. Instead of creating a large hierarchial index of available content, Lileks forces you to read his content in sequence. It breaks the taboos, but it works very well. Remind me -- why do we have those taboos?

For some sites, this might be a good taboo to break, in moderation. By making it so easy to find information, the hierarchial and timeline methods allow the reader to see less of your site. If you're a business, you may want to take the opportunity to display a little bit about your company or clients before taking your visitors to pricing information. If your site is based on advertising, you might make more money by splitting things up a little more. Hypertext just gives the illusion of reader freedom. As the author of the hypertext, you can ultimately control how the reader goes through your site.

All right! Enough examples already! Tell us The Great Principle of Hypertext(tm)!