Located: research topics > communication

Information delivery and linearity in site navigation

Author: Toby Braun (1995)

Abstract: Braun looks at the ability to use linearity as a tool to enable users to decide how much information they want to receive. He calls it the 'tell me more / tell me less' concept.

Interactive marketing case study: Banner ads draw users to sponsored sites, then to product sites, then to centralised virtual library. Add additional brands, some with product specific banner ad campaigns. As complimentary brands deploy sites, common themes and opportunities for cross-linking emerge. Brands conglomerate and become a marketspace (village metaphor).

Information delivery: the concept of tell me less / tell me more. This influences how far users progress into a site.

Information architecture: Linearity can still be used as a guide - especially where people are confused by hyperlinking. Argues that linking outside a site should always allow people to come back in.

Linearity, in this sense, has some relationship to the 'tell me less/tell me more' concept, where users can use the concept as a tool to decide how much information to accept. It is also at odds with some of the hierarchy concepts in The Yale Style Guide.