Home Page Architecture: Social Psychological Principles by Leon James in Hawaii

The other day someone asked me why I need to spend so much time online. I had a hard time explaining it. I think it just sounded like a lot of busy work on the keyboard, man battling a machine for several hours every day, alone at a keyboard, and usually facing the wall. How utterly empty this view is. I don't think I could be persuaded to engage in this activity if it were anything like that.

I tried to explain. You see, I have two homes, my regular house and my Home Page. My regular house requires upkeep, naturally, and we clean and tend the plants, and fix things, and shop around for things that go in it, and of course, we give loving care to our cats, who see themselves as part of the house. All this, in distributed time over the weeks and months, takes several hours a day. The person I was talking to nodded in agreement. This he could understand. A house takes daily work to upkeep. He had one himself. So now, I continued.

My Home Page is my other house. It sits in cyberspace. I had a difficult time explaining why I call a bunch of computer files on my drive by the name of "my house" or "my home." He had a bunch of folders and files on his computer and he didn't see why he should call this his house. Well, that's not it. I don't use the term "my home" for just any bunch of computer files around. But these particular files are connected to the Internet. This means that millions of people could look at them, at any time, and read them, or copy them to their own computer. In fact any navigator in cyberspace who lands on your Home Page can copy them at the flick of the mouse. For all I know my Home Page, or sections thereof, can have thousands of duplicates of itself all around the world.

I sat there in silence, enjoying the aftereffects of this grand image of the twins and cousins of my Home Page sitting out there on the information highway for thousands of people to admire and visit. What do you mean "visit" my friend said. They are just looking at a few of your files. That's all. It's a kind of a file-sharing system, isn't? We have one at the office. A few people are using it.

This is not going to be easy. I knew it right from the start. It's true that the Internet is one giant file-sharing system! Millions of computers worldwide are hooked into it and users can see, copy, and transfer files with each other. In fact this was the start of Internet in the 1970s and early 80s in the form of a few government and academic research places that hooked themselves together by long distance telephone lines and satellites. Scientists could exchange instantaneous mail messages with each other, could transfer the latest reports as they were being typed, and transmit data files to each other at high speeds. For the first time in the history of humankind, working teams in different locations could overcome to some extent the distance barrier.

No one used the word "Home" to describe these newly emerging computer networks. A few other things had to happen, namely platforms, clients, browsers, servers, and high speed modems in thousands of people's homes, regular homes that is. One day in the early 1990s Netscape, and a few look alikes, quietly entered the electronic network and began to multiply itself, first by the thousands, then by the millions. Thus was born the World Wide Web in cyberspace. For the first time in human history, people could create virtual homes and visit with each other in them. Cyberspace was born, ushering in a new age for civilization.

OK, my friend said, seemingly impressed, show me this Netscape business. How do we get on ramp the information super-highway. Of course he reads the newspapers so had heard of Vice-President Al Gore's efforts with the National Information Infrastructure, or something like that. I was anxious to get online. We waited while the modem kept redialing the busy number. After 15 minutes he began ribbing me. So, is the highway to your virtual house always so busy? Are you sure you got the right address? Eventually I got in -- what a relief -- and proudly presented him my Home Page. I was ecstatic. I looked at my latest background color, a light lemon shade, soft yet distinctive.

I was proud the way the whole Page fit into one screen. There was even a little space left at the bottom. I worked hours to get that little extra space. It brings out the shading in table border and best of all, it lets you know that that's all there is. You don't have to wonder or try the PageDown key or scroll the bar. It all neatly fits into one screen full, giving you a chance to relax your hand and take in the information. My friend said, So this is it. This is what you spend hours a day at.

I began to despair. Click on anything you want. It'll take you there. He did. Again and again he clicked away on every screen that came up. I could hardly keep myself from trying to interfere with him, from speaking harshly at him saying, Don't just click like that on anything. Examine first. Appreciate it. Look at the whole thing. Scroll up and down several times. Wait, look at that design layout. Isn't it magnificent. Look the person did their own logo and they worked hard on that background with little yellow roses and pink tulips. Notice the way the little balls next to each link are shaded at the bottom giving it a 3-D effect. I did not speak out loud. My friend looked impassively at the Java applet's animations and listened to the dorky welcome message in computerese voice. Well they've got a long way to go before this starts competing with TV. This is kids stuff. I made no effort to stop him when he proposed that he'd seen enough just five minutes later.

Later, when I got over my disappointment, I realized that there are two views possible regarding the Internet, one external and the other internal. My friend, along with many influential people in government, education and industry, are going to have only an external view. And this view is uninviting, unattractive, and unexciting. How fast it spreads, how much it costs, how it can be used for increasing sales, for delivering distance education, and making electronic libraries and information databases more accessible to all people. These external considerations regarding Internet are necessary and worthwhile. The new teletechnology is a boon to society worldwide. We need to protect and foster its development through appropriate and wise legislation and international agreements. I support and applaud this. But it is not where my love is. My love is in My Home Page architecture -- and this requires an inside view, a perspective obtainable only through doing the work of a cyberspace architect.

I find that Home Pages are always under construction for those owners who are personally involved. Constructing Home Pages on the World Wide Web is an exciting activity! Just think: you have the world at your finger tips. Because you determine what the browser sees and has access to, you are acting like a virtual god -- building a cyberspace architecture through virtual pathways to people's minds.

In the early days of Web Pages, starting in 1993, most netizens who owned cyberspace real estate put up a nice big WELCOME TO MY HOME PAGE sign. Nowadays, in 1996, people like to be more sophisticated. You see signs that say "Vance's Corner" or "Where I hang out" and commercial places may rely directly on content, like "World's Largest Electronic Shopping Mall" or "You've Made it to the Home of Fantasy Baseball" and "Cyberspace Hotel -- Enter Here."

The next time my friend visited my regular house, I twisted his arm and forced him to visit my cyberspace home. Why do you call it Home Page Site? Isn't it a Home Page? Yes it is a Home Page but since it is the entry point for hundreds of other Home Pages I call it my Home Page Site. I explained that I teach through a generational approach so that every semester dozens of new Home Pages get set up in my sub-directories that are off my Home Page. So my Home Page acts like a cyberspace gateway to the student Home Pages, and theirs in turn are made of different components such as home pages, databases, indexes, and collections of things. You can get lost in here, he said. I think this time he was definitely impressed.

I told him to click on my Complete Site Index Page. I was beaming with excitement as the topics scrolled by, screen after screen, in neat double columns, each entry a live link. A tremendous wealth of information and educational entertainment under my own virtual roof which a visitor can have simply by clicking on any entry. I spend hours a week building and updating my Complete Site Index Page. My students spend hours a week doing their Index. Home Page architecture is labor intensive. At this stage I can't afford a lot of yummy software that allows you to maintain and monitor Web sites, so it all has to be done by hand. One nice benefit: you get to know intimately what are the interstitial structures that create the information superhighway. One disadvantage: you don't have enough control on its expansion, creating fallow places, lost directories, dead links, and outdated looks.

The shape of cyberspace is dependent on hypertext technology. The super-magical word here is "link." From the outside perspective, a link is a virtual teletransporter on your Page. Click on it, and in one or a few more seconds, you are inside someone else's cyberspace castle. You can't tell by the travel time how far you've gone. You can go from one of my Pages to a student Page that is physically located on the same computer. Or you can go to a Page in Paris or Moscow or Tokyo and it will take about the same amount of time. The time factor actually varies and depends not on distance, but on traffic density. If 200 students and 1000 visitors are all trying to look at the same Page at the same time, they will each experience a few seconds of delay while the computer is scrambling to serve each visitor's request to view something.

People's clicking choices determine traffic, and traffic determines the density or shape of cyberspace. If no one ever clicks a link on a Page, it becomes an un-link in the zone of virtual silence. A link always has a purpose or function. Some reason exists why each link is there. A link may exist because it leads to another section of a document or to a continuation Page. It thus have a sequencing function. Or a link may be there because it is a reciprocal link to another link ("I'll put a link to your Page if you put a link to my Page"). A link may allow you to complete a step in a circular route, or it may be the central link acting as a pivot to other links.

Similarly, Home Pages have a motivating force determined by the reason for its existence. There are three broad categories of Home Pages which relate to their intent. For example, a Home Page may be the landing point for a Site that contains hundreds of Home Pages and even hundreds of sites attached together to form a cyberspace village or compound. The Page that leads to all other Pages thus has an introductory function. Some Pages are put up for artistic or expressive reasons while others fulfill a topical or indexical function presenting categories or sub-directories of organized information. I have prepared the following taxonomy to show the various combinations of Home Pages and Links that I have observed on the Web in my observations during 1995.

Types of Home Pages	Types of Links
	Sequential (direct)	Reciprocal (mutual)	Circular (recursive)	Central (pivotal)
Artistic (expressive)	9	10	11	12
Indexical (topical)	5	6	7	8
Standard (introductory)	1	2	3	4

Standard (introductory) (boxes 1 to 4)	Indexical (topical) (boxes 5 to 8)	Artistic (expressive) (boxes 9 to 12)
acts as a pivot explains areas uses broad titles is ordinarily kept short	gives direct access organizes a content area or subject uses specific titles can be long	attracts attention uses multimedia promotes a view or philosophy builds and encourages identification

Sequential Links (boxes 1,5,9)	Reciprocal Links (boxes 1,5,9)	Circular Links (boxes 1,5,9)	Central Links (boxes 1,5,9)
gives access facilitates exploration	enriches content	guides exploration guides access	builds a sense of familiarity facilitates access

From the psychological perspective, hypertext links in a virtual super-document created by members of a cyberspace learning community have three characteristics: affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor.

A link is a communicative act by which a member of the community transmits new information or new meaning by connecting two independent ideas which have not been related before. Links in a virtual learning community are thus motivated actions or behaviors responding to members' wishes to exchange and communicate their mental life to each other.

The affective feature of links refers to their motivation. It answers the question, Why the link was created, or, What was the person's purpose for putting a link there.

The cognitive feature of links refers to their argument or implication. It answers the question, What new information or knowledge is being created through the link, or, What is the new idea that is communicated by the link.

The sensorimotor feature of links refers to their location and appearance. It answers the question, How the link was created, or, What is its physical appearance.

The study and analysis of linkage structure is the study and analysis of communicative acts in cyberspace by members of a virtual learning community. It is the natural history of culture (ethnography), language (ethnolinguistics, sociolingusitcs, and psycholinguistics), and behavior (social psychology).

We need to look at our Home Pages with an objective eye. In general, we try to achieve two important results with a Home Page. One is that it should be clear (unconfusing), informative and useful. The other is that it should be beautiful, with a creative and entertaining style. These two aspects can be discussed as the informational and stylistic features of Home Pages.

Whether long or short, we want our Home Pages to be, above all, clear. Clarity and orderliness greatly help the fight against confusion. Look at your Page and ask yourself how visitors would react, where their eyes would go, what can they conclude, what clues can you give them, what are they to do next, and so on. Therefore you need to take charge of your Home Pages. You need to manage the visitors, choreograph their steps (or hops), so to speak. Make them feel guided, rather than left alone in an impersonal system.

Since your Home Pages are actually Web Sites, you need to have a clear image of how your files are interrelated, and transmit this image to visitors. Always connect every file to a central location (e.g., your main Home Page and the Instructor's Home Page). Your links within the files should be paragraph-specific, which means they need the Name Tag code in the target text.

Be sure to maintain a Topical Index to your Web pages, and keep it up to date with paragraph-specific links to your pages. The Index should also replicate (or mirror) the within-text links you have in your reports to other generational areas.

Above all, be sure that visitors don't end up waiting impatiently for your Page to load. No spiffy background effect or spectacular images will be appreciated by cybernauts who have to wait precious seconds for you to load just so you can show off!! So how much is too long to wait? In my opinion, the shorter the better. As a rule of thumb, I would say that anything more than 10 secs. is too long to wait for a Home Page. This rule is different for long text files with no images. These can be tolerated since they yield text or content, not just appearance.

You can reduce loading time by keeping a copy of the background in your directory (rather than a URL address) and by choosing backgrounds that load very quickly, instead of slowly (they vary enormously). Or you can choose to have no background and use other means. It is the same with icons, some are big files and take long to load, others are small files. You can tell by looking at the K value on the file when you copy or download it. You can also save much precious time by using the same background file in several places since it doesn't need to reload as you switch files within your Web Site. Another important principle is to arrange things so that some of the text gets loaded first, so that while it's loading the rest, visitors have something to do to occupy those precious few seconds!

The links need to be close together, but not too close. Avoid wasting screen area (where there is nothing). Avoid forcing visitors to keep paging down unless the text itself requires it (as in reports). Avoid being frivolous since this is an educational and scientific cybercommunity! On the other hand, it's good to have a certain tone or mood that is definite and recognizable. This tone could be serious or humorous (but not frivolous or adolescent). The ultimate purpose and justification for links is to be useful in navigation for cybernauts.

Social Psychological Principles of
Home Page Architecture

Table of Contents

Birth of Cyberspace

Home Pages are Loved

Cyberspace Home

Taxonomy of Home Pages and Links

The Function of Home Pages

The Function of Links

Principles of Cyberspace Architecture for Virtual Learning Communities

Psychological Characteristics of Hypertext Links

Informational Content of Home Pages

Stylistic Features of Home pages

Social Psychological Principles of Home Page Architecture