No single order

There are two main ways of dealing with hypertext.

The first is a scientific approach which points out the technical and practical aspects of this new medium. The second is a poststructuralist approach which defines the term from the point of view of a literary scholar by emphasising its theoretical functions and potential. Both ways are necessary to understand the structure of hypertext even though the theoretical ideas are of prime importance, since they also form the basis of the approach suggested by Jakob Nielsen, a distinguished engineer for strategic technology. He juxtaposes hypertext and traditional text and provides the following explanation:

All traditional text, whether in printed form or in computer files, is sequential, meaning that there is a single linear sequence defining the order in which the text is to be read. (...) Hypertext is nonsequential; there is no single order that determines the sequence in which the text is to be read.

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