Discussion of navigation buttons in instructional hypermedia programs focuses on a study of college students that investigated the effectiveness of buttons with pictorial representations, buttons with text and pictorial representations, and buttons with text only. Findings indicate that buttons with text labels reduce user confusion concerning…

Discusses navigation in instructional hypertext programs and describes two preliminary studies that investigated concrete versus abstract representations for backward navigation. Topics include representation and hypermedia sign systems; and consistency in the forms designers use for navigation buttons. (LRW)

Users of content-based software programs, including hypertexts and instructional multimedia, rely on the navigation functions provided by the designers of those program. Typical navigation schemes use abstract symbols (arrows) to label basic navigational functions like moving forward or backward through screen displays. In a previous study, the…