Signposts, footprints and maps

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the authors work in the area of discovering what constitutes an effective visual cue in Web screen design. The screen designer should provide for user orientation and ease of navigation within the network of hyper-linked information which constitutes the Web-based computer assisted learning environment. Screen design, for the purpose of the study, is defined as the organisation of those visual elements of the interaction between machine and human which are displayed on the computer screen. Navigation and orientation in hypermedia are important issues influencing the effectiveness of the human computer interaction. Good information design alone cannot guarantee successful communication. Designers need to establish a set of symbols which will help users to orientate and navigate within a system.