Designing hypertext retrieval systems for policy advisers, review and evaluation.

Abstract

This study investigates the responses of policy advisers to selected features of a proposed hypertext system. Hypertext is a novel computerized information system that makes text available in the form of short segments which refer to each other and which can be retrieved in any order. The study also provides literature reviews of selected, optional hypertext features, of research on reading texts of different lengths, and of prototyping techniques for the early stages of system development. The output of different versions of a hypertext system was shown to policy advisers at a large government office in Washington D.C. Results indicate: (1) The choice between displays of up to 12 or 24 lines in length does not affect policy advisers' evaluations of the information system prototype. However, the evaluations do show some interactions: small displays are negatively related to appreciation for a searching tool, positively related to appreciation of the system with an alphabetical index, and large displays are positively related to expected ease of use of the system with the index. (2) Text and index are evaluated reasonably positively in the disaggregated form that hypertext requires. However, evaluation of a system version with a searching tool, also presented in disaggregated form, is not as good as evaluation of a system version without that tool under particular circumstances (when the displays are small, and when the version without the tool is shown first). The study offers suggestions to improve the design of the searching tool and to improve other features of the demonstrated system, based on comments made during fifty evaluations. The prototyping technique used here does not require programming or expensive recording equipment, thus allowing almost any office worker to pretest proposed software or software improvements before calling on a computer specialist for actual development and implementation.