browsing intricately interconnected paths
Graph-centric and node-centric browsing are the two commonly identified hypertext-browsing paradigms. We believe that path-centric browsing, the browsing behavior exhibited by path interfaces, is an independent browsing paradigm that combines useful aspects of the two commonly supported cases. Paths have long been recognized as an effective medium for aggregating and communicating information and have been included in various hypermedia systems as alternate metaphors or supporting tools. The Walden's Paths project promotes path-centric traversal as the primary browsing mechanism over Web-based materials. This paper expands the notion of our paths to include more generalized structures and interconnections across paths. We present an architecture for describing complex networks of such paths. Finally, we discuss the design and present a prototype implementation of the Path Engine, a tool that provides a linear interface for browsing intricately interconnected paths.
browse interconnect path-centric browsing behavior interfaces aspect effect communication informal hypermedia systems metaphors tool tool walden's paths project web-based material paper general architecture complex network design prototype implementation path engine engine hypertext directed paths navigation metaphors graph tools