Observations on Hot Text

After reading the chapter excerpts from Lisa and Jonathan Price's book Hot Text, one "moral" was resoundingly clear: the construction of textual information on the web differs considerably than the creation of traditional print text. Though this statement sounds obvious, the Price readings made me consider my own differences in approaching online textual material vs. traditional print material and how these differences in approach will influence my website design decisions.

In the chapter, What Will the Web Do to My Text?, the authors bring to light a number of key differences between textual mediums that affect our overall relationships to textual information. Hot text differs from traditional print in a number of ways. Due to less resolution, hot text is generally less pleasing to the human eye than print text, so users tend to have less patience when reading online information than when reading print. I can personally attest to this fact; though I typically try to conserve paper when possible, the thought of reading a lengthy academic article online isn't an option for me. Also, when we navigate through the contents of a web page, we don't necessarily follow the text or links in a linear manner as we often do with books and other types of print material. As the authors note, the audience on the Web is made up of "users," not readers. Therefore, anyone authoring Web-based text must strive to arrange the information in a manner that can be easily navigated or the "user" will probably lose patience and look elsewhere for the information he or she seeks.

To combat this somewhat impersonal relationship users have to hot text, Web authorship must rely on gaining attention to his or her material. Personally, if I am perusing a site and cannot quickly validate that the site holds the type of information I am looking for, I will often impatiently look for another resource. For those posting online text, interface plays an important role by providing signals to the reader about what type of information can be found on the page. For instance, when looking at a website I will typically scroll down the page to view the menus, headings, and boldface links to help determine whether or not my information need may be sated. Therefore, when designing my own website I will need to determine what information a visitor to my site is expecting to see and have the necessary links to this content clearly represented.

Similarly, adhering to a particular genre can also help communicate what your site is trying to accomplish. Writing in a familiar pattern tells the user what type of information can be found on a particular site and the general purpose the author has in providing this information. When constructing my own site, I need to determine what it is exactly that I want to communicate to my audience and adhere to a textual persona that will communicate this message effectively.