"Even the coolest feature or the most compelling content is useless if people can’t find it." - Jakob Nielsen
When we’re designing a website, nothing happens in a vacuum. Every facet of design – research, IA, interaction design, visual design, content strategy - tends to affect everything else.
So it’s important to know where Information Architecture (in general) and tree testing (in particular) fit into the design process.
It's not just for breakfast any more
Do it early in the design process - later is too late
Contextual inquiry, open card sorting, and baseline tree testing
Using research to create new trees
Testing several alternative trees against each other
Iterating until we get the tree right
Diagrams of the full-fat and hurry-up approaches
Tree testing vs. closed card sorting, usability testing, and analytics