Tree testing is a usability technique for evaluating the

findability Findability is the ease with which information contained on a website can be found, both from outside the website (using search engines and the like) and by users already on the website. Although findability has relevance outside the World Wide Web, ...

of topics in a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

. It is also known as reverse card sorting or card-based classification. A large website is typically organized into a hierarchy (a "tree") of topics and subtopics. Tree testing provides a way to measure how well users can find items in this hierarchy. Unlike traditional

usability testing Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system. It is ...

, tree testing is not done on the website itself; instead, a simplified text version of the site structure is used. This ensures that the structure is evaluated in isolation, nullifying the effects of navigational aids,

visual design Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media communicate with people. A communication design approach is not only concerned with developing the message in addition to the ...

, and other factors.

Basic method

In a typical tree test: # The participant is given a "find it" task (e.g., "Look for men's belts under $25"). # They are shown a text list of the top-level topics of the website. # They choose a heading, and are then shown a list of subtopics. # They continue choosing (moving down through the tree, backtracking if necessary) until they find a topic that satisfies the task (or until they give up). # They do several tasks in this manner, starting each task back at the top of the tree. # Once several participants have completed the test, the results are analyzed.

Analyzing the results

The analysis typically tries to answer these questions: * Could users successfully find particular items in the tree? * Could they find those items directly, without having to backtrack? * If they couldn't find items, where did they go astray? * Could they choose between topics quickly, without having to think too much? * Overall, which parts of the tree worked well, and which fell down?

Tools

Tree testing was originally done on paper (typically using

index cards An index card (or record card in British English and system cards in Australian English) consists of card stock (heavy paper) cut to a standard size, used for recording and storing small amounts of discrete data. A collection of such cards e ...

), but can now also be conducted using specialized software.

Reference

Usability Web design Software testing {{website-stub