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In this article we consider issues of how to best adapt familiar features from traditional media to hypertext form to enhance or improve users' experiences. Many readers of discursive texts annotate paper copies of such texts with their own notes [Olsen, 1994; Marshall, 1998; Jackson, 2001]. Readers of such texts are frequently confronted with unfamiliar or ambiguous vocabulary. As a result of which it is common for some of these readers to attach glosses (and other notes) to the printed text to focus their mind and remind them of the meaning of their words during their next reading [Olsen, 1994].
Where the notes are about the definition of terms used in the text they are called glosses [Jackson, 2001]. These glosses are restricted to one copy in each work. We contend that as with shared annotation, making shared glossaries useful is more a matter of human factors than technological sophistication. Glossary entries have meaning that cannot be separated easily from the context in which they were created [Tague-Sutcliffe, 1995].
For a system or program to be more useful than traditional texts, it should offer desirable functionality that is unavailable in this traditional medium, as well as retaining the functionality of printed documents [Wright, 1991; Blustein, 2000]. Users will make the transition from traditional texts more readily if the functionality is accessible in a manner similar to that which they are accustomed to. According to Norman [1998] consistency, or standardization, assists users in becoming faster accustomed to novel technology or software.
Wright [1991, 1993] has done much research in the area of hypertext usability and has helped the hypertext community become better acquainted with usability aspects such as cognitive costs involved in hypertext linking. She states that documents in electronic format can facilitate some of the tasks users need to perform to obtain desired information. If the documents provide functionality not readily available with printed documents [Wright, 1991]. Here we concentrate on a basic determination of users needs. We experimented to learn if users were better off with glossary tools incorporated into browsers or not. We also tried to determine if it was better for users to have glossaries with entries that they could update or static lists.
In this article, we begin to fill the gap between theoretical considerations and practical applications of hypertext to improve the use of scholarly texts. The rest of this document is structured thus: first we discuss previous work done in the area of online glossary tools and link generation and then we discuss the process of reading texts online. We describe the design of the systems we developed, followed by a description of the experimental design. We present results of the experiments followed by a discussion of their possible interpretations and speculation on how glossaries could change the way people use electronic documents. The document concludes with a summary and possible future work.
References for works cited in this text chunk appear below. References for all works cited are available in a separate chunk.
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