Instructional Text: The Transition from Page to Screen

Abstract

Textual materials increasingly are being presented in electronic form. This change creates problems for both creators and users of these materials. These problems arise because the physical form of electronic materials is quite different from that of printed materials. The problems lie primarily in two areas: design of the surface, and design of the interface. Surface design involves typography, layout, graphics and illustrations, and the quality of language; also important to consider are users’ subjective reactions to these elements. Interface design is closely tied to the "wayfinding problem" — helping users navigate through the text. The wayfinding problem manifests itself on three different levels: the immediate structure of the text (how information is provided at the page level), the internal structure (how such information is provided within a given document), and the external structure (navigational aids that allow the users to move from one document to another). Three directions for further research are identified: realistic studies of how users represent to themselves the structure of text; and how users might best be introduced to environments incorporating electronic text.