Patterns of Hypertext and their Impact on Reading Activities

Patterns of Hypertext and their Impact on Reading
Activities

Karin
Wenz
English Department University of Kassel
wenz@hrz.uni-kassel.de

1999

university of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

ACH/ALLC 1999

editor

encoder

Sara
A.
Schmidt

Following Mark Bernstein's taxonomy of patterns of hypertext I will investigate
their specific influence on the user's actions and reader's experiences reading
a printed version and a multimedia HTML-hypertext version of the same text. The
aim of my investigation is to highlight the reading of hypertext by (1)
recording and following the ways of navigation in hypertext by using log files
as a primary source to communicative processes and (2) coordinating these
results with narrative reports governed by a questionnaire as a secondary
reconstructive action.
The text I've chosen is Carolyn Forché's epic poem "The Angel of History". One
group of students has read the printed poem first and the hypertext version
second; this setting was repeated with a second group in reversed sequence
(reading first the hypertext and second the text). The different strategies can
be followed by log files, which record the number of screens visited and the
amount of time spent with each screen. These data will provide means for
capturing processes of document search, reading, contemplation, and exploring
action. However, measuring only the reading time and path does not suffice to
interpret the data unambiguously. This is the reason why a second step, the
analysis of "reader" reports related to their navigational experience,
motivation and intention, has to be added. There will be an additional setting
with a group of reader's reading the hypertext version without any multimedia
effects and one reading the poem as a digital text in linear version in front of
the screen. This extension is necessary to judge, in how far not just the medium
used but the mixture of sign systems lead to different results. The storing of
navigation paths as a primary resource for the user's action and the narrative
reports about the experience with the printed text and the hypertext version
leads to protocols about a natural setting of media reception .
Mark Bernstein developed a taxonomy of patterns of hypertext, which have a
specific influence on the user's actions. These patterns are elements hypertext
consists of. Their presence or absence influence the reader's choices and offer
specific interactive possibilities. This interaction is governed by the rules of
the software which the specific hypertext requires. The following patterns are
components my hypertext consists of. These are seen in relation to the specific
activity they seem to support: (1) The tangle offers a variety of links without
specifying information where the link is pointing to. Therefore tangles lead to
a disorientation of the reader. The tangle supports the search strategy of
browsing through the text. (2) A counterpoint is given by the two voices that
alternate in the poem. A third voice is added by using elements (as background
color of one voice and text color of the second) to highlight the convergence of
both voices, as they seem to merge in the second part of the poem. Another
possibility to differentiate between both voices is layers that I used in one
and the same lexia to maintain the closeness spatially by dividing the voices at
the same time. (3) Neighborhood, and therefore coherence, is created by the use
of a specific design (color, visual motifs) for each voice in the poem. This
supports the reader's understanding of who is speaking. (4) Mirrorworlds are
parallel narratives or intertextual lines, which echoes one theme more in depth.
The mirrorworld I added to the poem consists of passages from Walter Benjamin's
work and documentary material about the holocaust, which both add new voices to
the poem. The mirrorworld offers a possibility of entering and leaving a new
space, which leads to an exploring behavior more than it supports close reading.
(4) The montage, which opens up several writing spaces at once, is a possibility
to highlight a motif or a metaphor used in the text. Montage is used here to
focus the user's attention and to develop a special motif in depth. This
complexity supports a closer reading of the lexia instead of a browsing
activity. (5) The cycle is used to mirror the dialogic cycle and repetition of
elements in the printed poem. The cycle leads the reader to a central page,
which then will offer new reading possibilities. The cycle fosters browsing
strategies as soon as readers recognize that they already have seen these lexias
before. The log files will show if the reader's behavior is changing from their
first visit of the lexia, which usually means reading and spending more time
with each lexia, and the second visit, which lead to a browsing strategy.
Bernstein's categories concern different aspects of hypertext. Cycle and
counterpoint have clearly to do with the shape of the underlying map of nodes
and links and can be described as structural or syntactic patterns. But the
difference between counterpoint and mirrorworld is more of a thematic or
semantic nature: counterpoint means two alternating voices talking about
different topics, while mirrorworld means different perspectives on the same
world. Montage is mostly a matter of visual presentation and seems compatible
with various types of map structure. Therefore I suggest to relate Bernstein's
patterns to different levels of hypertext.

Structural Patterns

Thematic Patterns

Visual Patterns

Expectational Patterns

tangle
counterpoint
feint
feint

cycle
montage
montage
missing link

sieve
mirrorworld

split/join

Montage and feint are clearly patterns related to two different levels of
hypertext. Both mark a transition: montage from the thematic to the visual level
and feint from the thematic to the expectational level.
As the patterns of hypertext the multimedia elements have a significant influence
on the reader's activity, if the time spent with a single lexia is regarded. The
amount of text offered in a single lexia (from 5 words to 250) has no influence
on the time spent with "reading". Pattern recognition seems to be a strategy
chosen by most readers. As hypertexts seem to foster a type of reading between
improvisation and planning, we need more open models of reading, which a
comparison of reading a text, playing a game, and browsing a screen may offer.
Both, the hypertextual structure, the sign systems used and the technology
chosen, have an important impact on the reading process.

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