2. Cognitive processing

2.1 Representation of structure and volume

The digital document is a virtual document, with the corollary of increased abstraction and a loss of the materiality and tactility of the medium. The shape and size of a paper document show us the extent of its content, enabling us to quickly locate the parts following or preceding the part we are consulting. Backtracking is easy. With a digital document, when a part is consulted, it is impossible to know the volume of the whole to which it belongs, where in this whole you are, how to go directly to the preceding part... unless you plan ahead. To compensate for the loss of information due to the immateriality of the document, it is advisable to use "artificial" organizers to give an indication of the volume of information (e.g. screen 2 of...