Page Tree Tests Explained

As defined by Optimal Workshop,

“Tree testing tells you how easily people can find information on your website, and exactly where people get lost. Your website visitors rely on your information architecture — how you label and organize your content — to get things done. Tree testing can answer questions like:

• Do my labels make sense to people?
• Is my content grouped logically to people?
• Can people find the information they want easily and quickly? If not, what’s stopping them?”

Page tree testing is used to test whether users can find the information on your website quickly and easily. Users are given tasks and try to complete those tasks using your site's navigation. You can test an existing website structure to see how well it's working or test a proposed page tree structure you created after a card sort.

What Does the Data Look Like?

FAS Communications recently conducted a page tree test for Travel Management Services to test proposed navigation after conducting a card sort.

The following is an overview of the test results by task.

Individual task data include success, failure, and abandonment rates, directness, time taken, and a score.

This test revealed the navigation working as predicted:

This test did not go as planned. There was considerable confusion after a promising start. There seems to be confusion over the meaning of Ground Transportation. Possible solutions include clarifying the navigation to "Rent a Car, Rent a Bus, and Rent a Truck.