Define what the terms “street signs and bread crumbs” mean as defined by Krug.
According to Steve Krug in Don’t Make Me Think, street signs characterize existing conventions. Conventions are standardized ways in which we do things. In this case, web conventions are the design elements that many designers have used, and most users expect to find. Users can spend less time and brain power trying to understand the site because everything does what it is expected to do, information is clear, and users can find what they are looking for with little effort. Street signs include:
- Where things are located on a page – One example is the shopping cart; for most e-commerce sites it is normally located in the top right-hand side of the page.
- How things work – For example, e-commerce sites generally follow a process of “checking out” that includes viewing and approving what is in your “cart,” then providing a payment method and shipping address for delivery.
- The search icon for example is a way how things look. It appears as a large and bold image that says ‘search’.
Breadcrumbs show the user’s location within the hierarchy of the website or the path of each page the user has viewed, either in order or by the hierarchy of their current page. Breadcrumbs add to the usability of a site because they improve finding pages, and reducing the number of clicks a user needs in order to get back to a higher-level page in within the site.
Identify what the street signs and bread crumbs are in the Pierce College website.
Some of the street signs, or conventions, used on the Pierce College website are:
- The Pierce College icon is in the top left-hand corner and is conveniently used as a home page button
- Search bar is located at the top right-hand side of the page
- Main navigation menu runs across the top of the page
- Drop-down menu with subsections is used in main navigation
- Social media link icons are made available
- Page sections like website privacy and employment that are of less importance are located at the bottom of the page in smaller text.
When navigating through the Pierce College website, a breadcrumb kind of navigation shows your current location as well as different locations available within a section.
Sherman James 