Skills of the readers as information users

Hypertext evaluation should include an evaluation of the demand a system may make on the reading skills of the users. This could mean the evaluation of users reading linear text (on print). The system should extend the range of cognitive activities that readers will engage in (that is, provide an insight into strategies which they may not have thought of). The following could be some cognitive extensions :

• Ability to search using keywords (general IR).
• Changing the very nature of the work being done by creating some sort of an interdependency between the system and the users.
• Evolution of new ways of thinking with the continued use of hypertext.