Digital literature is frequently "ergodic"--Aarseth's term meaning that the text requires a non-trivial effort on the part of the user in order to experience it (Hayles 2002). Usually most of this non-trivial effort goes into simply traversing the text--first discovering how, and then taking the actions needed to progress from one page, scene, or lexia to another.

There is a range, in digital literature, of how much effort is required to explore a text. Some works are a passive experience that offer the user no explicit controls over the sequence. In such examples as Queeney and Davila's Origami and the works of Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries, the ergodic effort is little more than keeping up with the pace at which the text is displayed.

Other works require the reader to click or explore with the mouse in order to advance the narrative. This can be a simple "page-turning" linear traversal of the text, such as in Kendall's Faith, a mostly linear path with some branching, such as Yuen's [Memoirs from Hijiyama], or a open exploration of a small text, as in Ankerson's Murmuring Insects.

Hypertexts are the most ergodic of literary texts. Beyond simply clicking on highlighted links, the user must often choose one link from many and must form a mental model of the work overall, including how the many lexia connect to form a coherent, if tangled, whole. This active sense-making through exploration suggests that we might use the conceptual metaphor of a constructed, navigable space to understand hypertexts. Conceptual metaphor theory holds that metaphor is more than just a poetic figure of speech, but an essential means by which we understand abstract concepts (Lakoff and Johnson 1981). Though other metaphors are certainly possible, the HYPERTEXT IS A STRUCTURED SPACE metaphor may allow us to apply the study of wayfinding to the process of navigating the connections of a hypertext structure.