SuperBook: an automatic tool for information exploration—hypertext?

ABSTRACT

The goals and methods of the text browser, SuperBook, are compared with those of hypertext systems in general. SuperBook, intended to provide improved access to text existing in electronic form, employs cognitive tools arising from human computer interaction research, such as full-text indexing, adaptive aliasing, and dynamic views of hierarchical information. Superbook automatically preprocesses on-line text written for paper publication, and produces a multi-window display, including a dynamic table of contents, pages of text, and a history of search words. Although SuperBook and hypertext share common goals of improved search and navigation, SuperBook is designed for accessing existing documents while most hypertext systems are better suited for authoring new information structures. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of each of these kinds of systems.

REFERENCES

• Bush45: Bush, V., "As We May Think", Atlantic Monthly, no.176, pp. 101-108, Boston, 1945.
• Coll87: George H. Collier, Thoth-II: hypertext with explicit semantics, Proceeding of the ACM conference on Hypertext, p.269-289, November 1987, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States [doi>10.1145/317426.317446]
• Furn83: Furnas, C.W., Landauer, T.K., Comez, L.M., and Dumais, S.T., tatistical semantics: Analysis of the potential performance of key-word information systems", Bell System Technical Journal, 62, 6, pp. 1753-1806, AT&T, New York, 1983.
• Furn85: George W. Furnas, Experience with an adaptive indexing scheme, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.131-135, April 1985, San Francisco, California, United States
• Furn86: G. W. Furnas, Generalized fisheye views, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.16-23, April 13-17, 1986, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• Furn: G. W. Furnas , T. K. Landauer , L. M. Gomez , S. T. Dumais, The vocabulary problem in human-system communication, Communications of the ACM, v.30 n.11, p.964-971, Nov. 1987 [doi>10.1145/32206.32212]
• Gome84: Gomez, L.M. and Lochbaum, C.C., "People can retrieve more objects with enriched key-word vocabularies But is there a human performance cost~" in B Shackel (Ed.) Human-Computer {nteraction- {nteract '84, pp. 257-261, North- Holland, Amsterdam, 1984.
• Gome: Gomez, L. M., Lochbaum, C. C., Landauer, T. K., "All the Right Words" A Study of Human Performance and Key-Word Information Retrieval, (in preparation).
• Hala87: Frank G. Halasz , Thomas P. Moran , Randall H. Trigg, Notecards in a nutshell, Proceedings of the SIGCHI/GI conference on Human factors in computing systems and graphics interface, p.45-52, April 05-09, 1987, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Mant82: Mantei, M. M, "A study of disorientation behavior in ZOC", Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 1982.
• McCr84: Donald L. McCracken , Robert M. Akscyn, Experience with the ZOG human-computer interface system, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, v.21 n.4, p.293-310, Oct. 1984 [doi>10.1016/S0020-7373(84)80050-4]
• Robe81: Robertson, McCracken, G D , Newell, A.,"The ZOG Approach to Man-Machine Communication', Int. J. Man-Machine Studies, vol. 14, pp. 461-488, Academic Press, New York, 1981.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus, forms, direct manipulation)

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING
      I.7.2 Document Preparation
          Subjects: Hypertext/hypermedia

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Languages, Management, Performance, Theory