"What is tree testing?"
"How does it improve my website?"
"How do I run a good tree test?"
Tree Testing for Websites is a community guide to the "tree test" method - a quick, quantitative way to making things easier to find on your website.
- If you're just getting started, this guide offers step-by-step instructions for running a good tree test and analyzing the results.
- If you have previously run tree tests, you'll find tips on how to run more advanced (and more effective) tests, and solutions to the most common mistakes that people make.
- If you have additional tree-testing wisdom to share, become a contributor to this guide!
1 - Getting your users unlost
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2 - Tree testing - a quick intro
- What is tree testing?
- Why run a tree test?
- When should we do a tree test?
- How long will it take?
- Which types of sites are most suitable?
- What are the basic steps?
- Chapter 2 - key points
3 - IA in the design process
- How does IA fit into design?
- How does tree testing fit into design?
- The research phase
- The design phase: creating new trees
- The design phase: going wide
- The design phase: going deep
- Putting it all together
- Comparing to other IA methods
- Chapter 3 - key points
4 - Planning a tree test
- Why are we running this test?
- How many rounds of testing?
- Which trees will we test?
- Who will we test?
- When will we test?
- Where will we test?
- Who will do what?
- How will we handle problems?
- Documenting our plan
- Chapter 4 - key points
- Which tool will we use?
5 - Creating trees
- Basing new trees on research
- Common schemes to organize sites
- Combining and flipping schemes
- Wide/shallow vs. narrow/deep
- Labelling and terminology
- Team-sourcing ideas
- Roughing out alternative trees
- Picking candidate trees to test
- Posing questions about tree elements
- More on creating trees
- Chapter 5 - key points
6 - Preparing a tree for testing
- Working in an electronic format
- Which part of the tree?
- Which headings to include/exclude?
- Spotting missing content
- Dealing with shortcuts and duplicated content
- Breaking up double-level topics
- Using link names instead of page titles
- What to call “Home”
- Transferring the tree to a testing app
- Chapter 6 - key points
7 - Writing tasks
- Which tasks to include?
- How many tasks?
- Mapping tasks to the tree
- Different tasks for different user groups
- Collaborating on tasks
- Writing a good task
- Identifying correct answers
- Entering tasks and their answers
- Randomizing the order of tasks
- Letting participants skip tasks
- Asking questions after a task
- Chapter 7 - key points
8 - Setting up a test
- Naming the test
- Disguising the test address
- Selecting languages
- Password-protecting the test
- Setting closing rules
- Redirecting after the test
- Setting up the tree and tasks
- Writing supporting text
- Adding survey questions
- Choosing a visual look
- Providing a support contact
- Alerting the organization about our study
- Chapter 8 - key points
9 - Recruiting participants
- How many participants?
- Different user groups
- Using web ads
- Using email lists
- Using social media
- Using commercial panels
- Using integrated recruitment tools
- Other ways to recruit
- Dealing with selection bias
- Coordinating audiences and channels
- Screening for specific participants
- Restricting access with a password
- Writing a good invitation
- Offering incentives
- Recruiting for in-person sessions
- Chapter 9 - key points
10 - Piloting the test
- Trying out the task wording
- Previewing a test
- Running a pilot test
- Checking for technical problems
- Revising the test
- Chapter 10 - key points
11 - Running the test
- Splitting users randomly among tests
- Launching the test(s)
- Monitoring the test's progress
- Keeping stakeholders informed
- Asking “why?” with in-person sessions
- Closing the test
- Chapter 11 - key points
12 - Analyzing results
- Cleaning the data
- Sharing the data
- Reviewing overall results
- Analyzing by task
- Analyzing by branches
- Analyzing by user group or other criteria
- Discovering evil attractors
- Chapter 12 - key points
13 - Communicating results
- Recording findings
- Turning findings into actions
- Summing up the basics
- Reporting in more depth
- Passing along participant feedback
- Chapter 13 - key points
14 - Revising and retesting
- Revising trees
- Cherrypicking and hybrid trees
- Rewording and replacing tasks
- Tuning survey questions
- Using fresh participants
- When are we done?
- Chapter 14 - key points
15 - Special considerations
- Testing trees for mobile apps
- Multi-language testing
- Tree testing in Agile/Lean projects
- Tree testing on paper
- Chapter 15 - key points
16 - Beyond tree testing
- Testing navigation
- Testing search
- Testing visual design
- Testing content
- Testing overall usability
- Chapter 16 - key points
Appendix - templates
- (global) change all to gerunds? (…ing)
- (global) link to specific page
- (global) “we” vs. “you” vs. “I” – prefer “we” when talking collectively?
- (global) terms - heading vs. topic
- (global) make all xrefs specific (e.g. a section in a chapter)
- (global) Should paper testing be segregated because it’s just clutter for most readers?
- (global) images - set title/alt text and border
- (global) check all examples and get permission where needed
- check web articles (esp. OW blog) and webinar slides about tree testing for more wisdom and examples (and people to contact)
- check TJ and other tools for other features we haven’t covered yet