A Comparison of Linear and Hypertext Formats in Information Retrieval

An exploratory study is described in which the same text was presented to subjects in one of four formats, of which two were hypertext (TIES and Hypercard) and two were linear (Word Processor and paper). Subjects were required to use the text to answer 12 questions. Measurement was made of their time and accuracy and their movement through the document was recorded, in addition to a variety of subjective data being collected. Although there was no significant difference between conditions for task completion time, subjects performed more accurately with linear formats. The implications of these findings and the other data collected are discussed.