Moving beyond narrative in nonlinear Web site design

The problems of nonlinear information design are not unique to modern media technologies such as the World-Wide Web. Newspaper writers have traditionally used guiding questions (who, what, when and where) to formulate the summary leads that allow each reader to idiosyncratically navigate a nonlinear narrative path through a newspaper. Thus, user access to nonlinear information on the World Wide Web likewise improves with the inclusion of question-guided summary leads. To formulate those summary leads, a site designer should likewise use guiding questions, but the designer should be aware that not all information belongs to the genre of narrative. Leading summaries in each genre differ in terms of their guiding questions.