[Sigia-l] IA myths: conceptual model of navigation

[John Fullerton]

When I used Compuserve's (Windows) Information Manager to access Compuserve forums several years ago, I noticed that I thought of the forums as having a location on the screen (as though there were a circle of icons to access the forums).

When I drive through town to a location, I seem to have in mind what I need to do next, and have to image the route in order to say directions to the location.

Using my own online links, there's a related sense of getting to resources through processes (like click one link and find the next link and so on). I often edit the browser address field to get to locations and may tend to edit the address as likely as using the link to home or links to other other main site options. Maybe that has to do with having more confidence in the effect of editing the address.

Yet even so, there is a conceptual sense of how to navigate, like knowing that I can edit the address for the purpose of navigation.

Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
j-fullerton at tamu.edu