01
DATA & SYSTEMS
I work to make information dependable.
I explored how data can be represented and updated while preserving consistency through relational models and consistent views.
I want to build on foundations people can rely on.I FOLLOW QUESTIONS, NOT SILOS
I work in the spaces between information and understanding.
I have worked across database models, hypertext, cultural heritage, and collaborative learning. Across these fields, I keep returning to one question: how can technology help people navigate, interpret, and share knowledge?
A few paths through my research and ideas
Paolo PaoliniData · Hypertext · Multimedia
From data models to the classroomSCROLL TO FOLLOW THE THREAD ↓
THE IDEA THAT HOLDS IT TOGETHER
Different fields.
One question I keep returning to.
How can I shape information so people can use it, move through it, learn from it, and make it their own?
It connects my early work on databases and hypertext with later explorations of digital storytelling, accessibility, cultural heritage, and collaborative education. The subjects change; my concern for the person on the other side remains.
FOLLOW A PATH THROUGH MY WORKSTRUCTURE → CONNECTION → MEANING → PEOPLE
IDEAS THAT CONNECT MY WORK
The connections I follow.
Choose a theme to see how I approached it and open a paper I co-authored.
A MAP OF RELATED IDEASSELECT A NODE
THE CENTRAL QUESTIONHow should
information
serve people?
information
serve people?
TRACE A CONNECTION THROUGH MY WORK5 THEMES · 5 SELECTED PAPERS
03LINKS
I treat navigation as part of the design.
In our HDM work, we distinguished structural, application, and perspective links, alongside browsing semantics that define how people move through a hypertext application. For me, navigation belongs to the design itself—not as decoration added later.
A PAPER I CO-AUTHORED · 1993HDM — A Model-Based Approach to Hypertext Application DesignDOI record
More of my work in this theme A selection, not my complete bibliography.
THREE PATHS THROUGH MY WORK
I moved from building systems
to building understanding.
My work has moved from data systems to hypertext, cultural heritage, and learning. The question that keeps returning is this: how can design help people make sense of information?
02
HYPERTEXT & THE WEB
I make complexity navigable.
I treated structure and links as part of the experience, shaping how readers move through information.
For me, navigation is part of the design—not an afterthought.03
CULTURE, ACCESS & LEARNING
I ask what makes technology matter.
With colleagues, I explored digital storytelling, accessible cultural websites, and collaborative learning—with an emphasis on what people can experience, understand, and share.
I believe technology works best when people can take part, learn, and create.A PRINCIPLE I RETURN TO
For me, technology is a means. The human experience is the reason.
WHERE MY WORK MEETS THE WORLD
Ideas should leave the lab.
Much of this work has been collaborative. With colleagues in HOC-LAB, I explored multimedia communication, cultural heritage, and education by designing and evaluating technology in real settings, always asking who it serves and what it makes possible.
Explore the HOC-LAB research contextCULTURAL HERITAGE
I use stories to bring places alive.
In collaborative projects, I explored how images, sound, and narrative can connect places and collections with the histories they hold.
Read the chapterLEARNING & COLLABORATION
I design the experience, not just the tool.
In our studies of multi-user learning environments, I found that collaboration depended on more than the platform. Activities, teachers, students, and school context all mattered.
Read the studyACCESS, SOCIETY & AGEING
I treat access as part of the design.
With collaborators, I explored how cultural-heritage websites could be made accessible to blind users. Separately, the wider research community investigated persuasive communication and cognitive health in later life.
More about the research groupONE COLLABORATIVE STUDY9,000+
What I learned from collaboration.
In a 2014 study with Nicoletta Di Blas, we examined four programmes (2002–2009), involving students aged 12–18 across 18 European countries, Israel, and the United States. The study highlighted collaboration and the importance of purposeful activities and school context. The figure refers to those programmes, not to an individual achievement.
✳ These examples come from collaborative HOC-LAB projects and papers I co-authored with colleagues.
SELECTED WORK
Three papers. A wider conversation.
HDM—A Model-Based Approach to Hypertext Application Design
Properties and Update Semantics of Consistent Views
Multi-User Virtual Environments Fostering Collaboration in Formal Education
THE QUESTION I KEEP RETURNING TO
Across these fields, I keep asking how information can be shaped into experiences people can understand and use.
ACROSS TIME
How my questions have changed shape.
My work has moved from data modelling to adaptive learning. The contexts have changed, but my attention to structure and human experience has travelled with them.
01
1974
Models for data
With G. Bracchi and A. Fedeli, I explored a multilevel relational model and the question of how information should be represented.
02
1988
Meaning through change
With my co-authors, I examined how database views can change while remaining consistent with the underlying data.
03
1991–93
Hypertext becomes a design discipline
With Franca Garzotto and Daniel Schwabe, I helped develop HDM, a systematic way to model hypertext applications and their relationships.
04
2004
Access is part of the experience
With colleagues, I explored accessible educational and cultural-heritage websites—and asked who can meaningfully use a digital experience.
05
2009–14
Learning through making and collaboration
Through work on PoliCultura, digital storytelling, and multi-user virtual environments, I explored how learners can make and share knowledge together.
06
2021–22
Conversation as a learning interface
With co-authors, I explored TalkyTutors and educational chatbots as ways to support more adaptive learning pathways.
THEN → NOWA FEW MILESTONES FROM MY WORK · NOT A COMPLETE CV
A LITTLE ABOUT ME
I started with physics.
I kept returning to people.
From physics and information systems to communication and learning.
I studied Physics at the University of Milan before earning a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Computer Science at UCLA. My work has since ranged across relational databases, hypertext, multimedia communication, web design, accessibility, cultural heritage, and technology-supported education.
At Politecnico di Milano, I taught Web Application Design, Hypermedia Applications, and Human–Computer Interaction, and served as HOC-LAB’s scientific coordinator until 2016. The lab’s current profile lists me as Senior Scientific Advisor in Computer Science. Across these fields, I keep returning to the same question: how can information be designed, navigated, and used by real people?
RESEARCH · DESIGN · PEOPLEFIRST-PERSON SITE CONCEPT · PENDING OWNER REVIEW
WHAT KEEPS ME CURIOUS
I care about what a connection makes possible.
Across databases, hypertext, cultural heritage, and learning, I keep returning to how information can be structured, navigated, and shared. My guiding idea is simple: technology should support people—not require people to serve the system.