Contents
Webpages
Visualization is an important aspect of information design. We scan our information environment and interact with the objects in it visually and spatially as part of the whole cognitive process. We interact differently with information objects arranged in a hierarchy of files and folders as in links in bookmarks from links arranged on a flat page. We infer certain relationships and meanings based on the placement or position of information objects relative to others. This tutorial is an invitation to explore the possibilities afforded to us by the surface of a web page and to explore whether it will work for you.
Imagine the box on the right to be a blank webpage. It has width. It has length. It is flat. It is a surface. But imagine it also as a vast space that you can carve up into sections. Imagine it as a workspace in which you can arrange hyperlinks grouped according to your own categories of interests. Imagine these groups of hyperlinks as your tools in gathering information that would help you accomplish tasks like writing a paper, planning a vacation, buying a car, finding a job, etc.
Perhaps for many users, bookmarks (in Mozilla Firefox or Netscape) or Favorites (in Internet Explorer) already serve the function of gathering, storing, and organizing the links to web resources. But bookmark folders can get overloaded which later make finding and navigation of the links in these folders difficult. The advantage of links arranged on a page is its better visibility which can facilitate easier and faster access to the needed information resource.
Bookmarks and web pages can complement each other however. Bookmarks can serve as an initial gathering and storage utility for links to web resources which later can be selected from for links to include in a more organized personal portal. Think of this tutorial as part unrolling of bookmark folders into the flat but malleable and expandable surface of web pages.
For further Reading: See David Kirsh's argument that organization is The Intelligent Use of Space.