Navigation in Hypertext

Global Metrics

The most obvious global metric is the size of hypertext, i.e. number of nodes, links and their ratio. However, these numbers don't give much information about the complexity of hypertext.

Two most important metrics belonging to the global type are compactness and stratum. Although compactness and stratum were originally developed to assess the structure of hypertext networks, subsequent work has suggested that these same metrics might be usefully applied as tools in assisting users navigate networks [McEneaney]. McEneaney's study attempted to broaden the application of these metrics still further by proposing adaptations intended to support the analysis of user movement in hypertext.

Last modified: 6 Nov 2002 by Kathy Nguyen Dang