A hypertext is a digital text that links to sections or pages within the text, to other texts, to media elements, and the like. Websites are the most common hypertext example. EBooks and eJournals are also often hypertextual, though not always with the same level of intricacy as a website. When designing a hypertext there are a number of technical and intellectual considerations including, but not limited to, information architecture, information organization, taxonomies, wayfinding, and navigation. All of these considerations impact usability and user experience. In digital scholarship, hypertexts are ways of publishing scholarship, e.g., making data visualizations and analysis available online. Through their structure, design, and the inclusion of media, they are also used to present scholarly arguments and tell narratives.
Hypertexts can be structured to create narrative paths and games. While a typical website platform like WordPress can be used to create such experiences, tools like Twine and Scalar were designed specifically for such purposes.
A Case of Hysteria, also an example of a digital exhibit, uses Scalar to create paths that take users through different topics.
Visit the site to explore the paths.
The Anachronist, created in Twine, is an example of both a narrative and a game in which players make choices that determine the outcome.
Visit to interact with the game.
Multimedia projects are typically created in a hypertext format. This project, Sound and Documentary in Cardiff and Miller's Pandemonium, was created as a digital companion to a traditional master's thesis. Using Scalar, an open-source publishing platform, the project weaves images, video, and audio to bring greater light and meaning to the research topic.
The hypertext medium affords scholars the opportunity to publish and present works in many different ways. As an example, the Digital Dante website contains scholarship ranging from commentary and analysis to a Divine Comedy digital edition to multimedia representations and responses to the author's works.
