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VCB425 Interactive Strategies

Trunk Test

Usability expert Steve Krug has created a simple test to determine whether a site has good navigation: the Trunk Test. According to Krug:

Imagine that you've been blindfolded and locked in the trunk of a car, then driven around for a while and dumped on a page somewhere deep in the bowels of a web site. If the page is well designed, when your vision clears you should be able to answer these questions without hesitation:

What site is this? (Site ID)
What page am I on? (Page name)
What are the major sections of this site? (Sections)
What are my options at this level? (Local Navigation)
Where am I in the scheme of things? ("You are here" indicators)
How can I search?

Why the Goodfellas motif? Because it's so easy to forget that the Web experience is often more like being shanghaied than following a garden path. When you're designing pages, it's tempting to think that people will reach them by starting at the Home page and following the nice, neat paths you've laid out. But the reality is that we're often dropped down in the middle of a site with no idea where we are because we've followed a link from a search engine or from another site, and we've never seen this site's navigation scheme before (Krug, 2000, pg. 87).

Assignment

You will perform trunk tests on three different web sites that I will specify. You will than write-up your findings (as a set of bullett point observations/recommendations). Finally you will make a presentaion by putting these findings on web page (or set of pages) of your own.

Procedure

Write the six trunk test questions (in the quote above) on a piece of paper. Do this on two more pieces of paper (one for each web site you will test).
Visit the following web pages one at a time:

For each web page, answer each question. See how quickly you can find the elements specified. Are they easy to find? Are they well designed? Are they even there? How could they be improved? Write down your observations.
Create a "mini" web site of your own to present your observations. List your coments as bullet points. You may want to include screen shots of the pages. Here is an example.
Make it pretty (but informative).
Upload the trunk test site to the server and link to it from your home page.

Deadline

Next week.

Grading Rubric

Grading Scale
4 3.7	A A–	Portfolio quality work.
3.3 3 2.7	B+ B B–	Above average student work.
2.3 2 1.7	C+ C C–	Average student work. Meets the minimum requirements of the project.
1.3 1 .7	D+ D D–	Below average work.
0	F	Incomplete or very poor.

Grading Scale

3.7

A–

Portfolio quality work.

3.3

2.7

B+

B–

Above average student work.

2.3

1.7

C+

C–

Average student work. Meets the minimum requirements of the project.

1.3

D+

D–

Below average work.

Incomplete or very poor.

Base Grade
Categories	Factor	Points
Quality of observations / insights	x1	0–4
Design of presentation site	x1	0–4

Reference

Krug, S. (2000) Don't Make Me Think. Berkeley, California: New Riders.