Tree Test

Website categories need to be well organized, so finding content is quick and easy. The purpose of labels on your site is to tell users which category the information belongs to. With a tree test, you can label/categorize your content in a way that will make sense to your readers. A tree test allows you to evaluate the hierarchy of categories by having participants find out where specific tasks can be completed. To test if the site navigation is functioning properly, you’ll need to create a tree page or menu and insert tasks, which should be instructions that tell the participants what they are supposed to do. This needs to be done for each different area of the site. 

The SPRINT tree test gives you a clear overview of how you improve the findability (or people’s ability to discover) of certain topics on your website. The test can include up to 10 tree test tasks.

Important metrics are:

• percentage of correct tasks
• matrix analysis for the card sort
• optimal paths per task
• video recordings per respondent