Jessica Helfand, "Hypertext: Text that Grows." I.D., 41:5 (September/October 1994) 95.

Design, as it might classically be defined, has perhaps less immediate value in an environment which so clearly favors the unpredictable. A Hypercard study collection at the Design Museum in London organizes choices through conventional button sequences: users can track design history through a variety of subcategories. Clean and uninspired, the interface suffers from its own acceptance of the generic visual "stack" vocabulary. It appears to be the environment itself which demands new design thinking, less so the material within.

Could hypertext mean the death of classic design? Increasingly, designers are starting to look at things differently, challenging the authority of reading, questioning legibility and creating typefaces which break through traditional boundaries and formal methodologies. Think of page layouts being faxed for review, or files being submitted via disk: As our channels of communication and distribution become less paper-bound, we invite greater potential for input and change. Less purism. More branches. This is the lesson of hypertext: To design in this rationale means to push the thinking forward, imagining the myriad possibilities of different pathways and permutations, putting yourself in the user's place. It is as much an acting exercise as a design task. Perhaps more.

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