Questions it can answer
- How effective is the new information architecture we’ve developed?
- Where will people expect to find information?
- How easy is it to find information in the product?
What is tree testing?
Tree testing is a research method used to evaluate how easy or difficult information is to find in a product. The method involves participants using a text based information structure to indicate where they would expect to find different items, topics or pieces of information. The text based structure ensures no visual components or styles influence the research.
When to use it. Tree testing is most often used following a card sorting activity to understand how people group information. With this insight an information architecture is developed and the tree test can be used to evaluate how well the architecture performs at helping people find the information they need.
It’s also common for tree tests to be used to evaluate existing product information architectures. This can be necessary if research through analytics or usability has identified the product has an information architectural issue, most commonly identified by people struggling to find something.
Related guide: For the full method, see our tree testing guide, and tree testing vs card sorting for choosing between them.
Do it faster with a Claude skill: Screener builder. Builds a first draft of this study in Claude that you can edit before you send it.
Advantages
- Tree testing is easy to setup and results can be analyzed quickly
- Research session lengths are typically short making recruiting participants easy
- No design artifacts will interfere with the results
Limitations
- When tree testing is conducted remotely it’s not possible to dig deeper into why participants navigated a certain way - consider adding a survey to your method to capture this insight
- The tree test assumes users start at your homepage or a top level navigation page. Which may not always be realistic of where users start their journey
- Lacks any ability to assess how visuals support with navigation
Frequently asked questions
How do I write tree testing tasks?
Describe something the participant needs to find, in their words rather than your menu labels. For example, "You want to change the email address on your account" rather than "Find Account settings".
Should I run a card sort or a tree test first?
Card sort first if you are designing a new structure, then tree test the structure you build from it. If you already have a structure, start with a tree test to see where it fails.
Can I run tree testing in Great Question?
Yes, on the Enterprise plan. Tree testing, card sorting and focus groups are not included in self-serve.