Providing spatial navigation for the World Wide Web
Andreas Dieberger
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Literature, Communication & Culture
Atlanta, GA 30332-0165
Tel.: (404) 894-2730, Fax.: (404) 853-0373
email: andreas.dieberger@acm.org
in Proceedings of COSIT'95
(European Conference on Spatial Information Theory), Semmering, Austria,
September 1995, Springer LNCS 988, pp. 93-106
Abstract
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a rapidly growing distributed hypertext on
the Internet. Like most hypertexts it suffers from various navigational problems.
This paper presents a way to enable users to navigate the WWW spatially by
providing a spatial user interface metaphor in a textual virtual environment.
This supposedly helps users to orient themselves in the masses of information
available. The term "spatial navigation" stresses the fact that the structure of
the information space is made explicit in this type of navigation whereas
hypertext itself, and especially the WWW tend to hide this structure. We overview
common navigational strategies on the WWW and point out how these strategies
indirectly make use of the underlying structure of the information space. Whereas
hypertexts hide their structure, virtual environments explicitly show it. We
outline navigational differences between hypertexts and (textual) virtual
environments and describe a possibility to combine the advantages of both. In our
system, presently implemented at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a textual
virtual environment is combined with the WWW to create a mirror space to an
extract of the WWW. By navigating this virtual environment the user also
navigates the WWW but in a spatial and structured way. The system supports
interaction between users and therefore collaborative navigation. This feature
makes it possible to conduct guided tours in the WWW and to describe paths to
information vaguely, like in real world environments.
last modified 8/1999
andreas.dieberger@acm.org