An experience using a spatial hypertext Wiki

Abstract

Most wikis do not allow users to collaboratively organize relations among wiki pages, nor ways to visualize them because such relations are hard to express using hyperlinks. The Spatial Hypertext Wiki (ShyWiki) is a wiki that uses Spatial Hypertext to represent visual and spatial implicit relations. This paper reports an experience about the use of ShyWiki features and its spatial hypertext model. Four groups, consisting of 3 members each, were asked to use ShyWiki for creating, sharing and brainstorming knowledge during the design and documentation of a software architecture. We present the evaluation of a questionnaire that users answered about their perceived usefulness and easiness of use of the spatial and visual properties of ShyWiki, and several of its features. We have also asked the users if they would find the visual and spatial properties useful in a wiki such as Wikipedia. In addition, we have analyzed the visual and spatial structures used in the wiki pages, and which features have been used.