Exploring large hyperdocuments: fisheye views of nested networks
Emanuel G. Noik · 1993
Browsing large hypertexts by following links can be difficult and confusing, especially if links span distant nodes. Often, a user would like to explore several regions of a network simultaneously, when studying the end points of one or more links, for example. Although this can be achieved by displaying each area of interest in a separate zoomed-in window, the union of such views is not always meaningful. In particular, valuable context showing the relationships between the views is lost. By balancing local detail and global context, fisheye views display information at several levels of abstraction simultaneously. We have devised a novel technique for generating fisheye views of hierarchically nested structures with multiple variable strength focal points. In this paper we demonstrate its feasibility as a tool for exploring large nested hypertext networks. Keywords: nested hypertext networks, navigation, overviews, fisheye views. 1 Introduction Although hypertext and hypermedia sys...