Lessons Learned from Early Hypertext Research at the University of Maryland

Abstract

The Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Maryland saw the development of key technologies leading to today’s user interfaces. We will focus on two of them: Hyperties1, 2, 3, 4 was first conceived by Ben Shneiderman in 1982 as a publication tool in which authors produce hypermedia for thousands of readers. It had separate tools for browsing and authoring documents. Each document was called an article and cross-references were implemented as embedded blue text links2 and image maps. Built into Hyperties were authorgenerated and alphabetical tables of contents including every article plus history lists supporting reversible actions. Hyperties was one of the first software packages that needed no error messages since the design prevented the user from making errors. It was used in the widely circulated ACM-published disk “Hypertext on Hypertext” which contained the full text of the eight papers in the July 1988 Communications of the ACM. The following year Hyperties was used to create the first commercial electronic book, Hypertext Hands-On!3. Hewlett-Packard used Hyperties to distribute electronic documentation for its LaserJet 4 printers in 15 languages. This may have been the first worldwide distribution of hypertext prior to implementation of the World Wide Web. Zooming User Interfaces. Following pioneering research on Zooming User Interfaces (ZUIs) Ben Bederson continued with the development Piccolo. His recent paper4 summarizes the premise and promise of ZUIs along with their challenges, and offers a cautionary tale about research and innovation. CCS Concepts/ACM Classifiers • Human-centered computing~Hypertext / hypermedia • Social and professional topics~History of software Author