Conclusion

While trying to understand hypertexts as constructed, navigable environments, we have found a number of comparisons with physical architecture. We can map physical structures such as paths, nodes, landmarks, edges, and districts to hypertext equivalents, though the mapping is not always a clean one. With paths of no length and no clear edges, hypertext is more like a many-roomed structure with no windows to the outside orientation.

Hypertext lexia may be connected to demonstrate their relationship to each other. If the reader can grasp the principles of this organiziation and determine where she is currently located within this scheme, she can use this model to navigate through the work. Otherwise, she must rely on signs at each decision point.

These Waves of Girls is a tangle of memories and multimedia, not easily structured into a coherent whole. Here, we have examined some of its weakness: misleading use of landmarks, weak district flavor and enclosure, unclear directional links, and poor indications of how one lexia corresonds to the others. Yet, through continued exposure, we can eventually learn how the work is laid out. This exploration and sense-making is precisely what makes hypertexts so ergodic. Yet hopefully the exploration is made pleasureable, as in These Waves, by the rich and enjoyable content along the way.


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