Tree Testing in UX: A Beginner’s Guide

In UX, understanding how users navigate through a website or app is crucial. One powerful method for evaluating this is tree testing. This guide will walk you through what tree testing is, how to do it, and why it's an essential tool in your UX research toolkit.

What is Tree Testing?

Tree testing is a UX research method used to evaluate how easily users can find topics on a website or app. It helps researchers understand if their site's organization makes sense to users. 

In tree testing, users are shown a simple text version of a site's menu (the "tree") and asked to complete tasks by navigating through it.

Tree testing in UX focuses only on the site's structure, without any visual design elements that might influence how users behave. This helps to spot problems with labels, categories, and overall information organization.

What is an example of a tree test?

Imagine you're redesigning an online store that sells outdoor gear. You might create a tree structure like this:

• Clothingsome text
  • Men'ssome text
    • Jackets
    • Pants
    • Shirts
  • Women'ssome text
    • Jackets
    • Pants
    • Shirts
• Equipmentsome text
  • Campingsome text
    • Tents
    • Sleeping Bags
  • Hikingsome text
    • Backpacks
    • Trekking Poles
• Footwearsome text
  • Boots
  • Sandals
  • Running Shoes

In this tree testing example, you might ask participants to find "Women's Jackets" or "Camping Tents." How they move through the tree shows you if your categories make sense and if users can easily find specific items.

What is the goal of tree testing?

The main goal of tree testing is to check if your website's structure works well. It aims to:

• Find navigation problems in your website or app structure
• Check if your content labels and organization make sense
• Spot areas where users might get confused
• Get ideas on how to make your site easier to use

When should you do tree testing?

Tree testing works best when done early in the design process. It's good to do it after you've created a basic site structure, but before you've spent a lot of time on how the site looks. 

Tree testing is also useful in these situations:

• When you're redesigning an existing website or app
• Before adding new features or content to your product
• After users tell you they're having trouble finding things
• Before or after doing a card sorting exercise

By using tree testing at these important times, you can catch and fix navigation problems before they become big issues in your design.

Is tree testing quantitative or qualitative?

Tree testing is mainly a quantitative research method. It gives you numbers on things like success rates, how long tasks took, and which paths users took through your site structure. But it can also give you qualitative insights, especially if you combine it with participant feedback or interviews after the test.

The numbers from tree testing can tell you where users have trouble, while their feedback can help you understand why they struggle. This combination makes tree testing a powerful tool for UX researchers.

How many participants do you need for tree testing?

For reliable results, try to get 50-100 people to do your tree test. This number of participants helps make sure your results are trustworthy and lets you see patterns in how users behave. But even smaller studies with 20-30 participants can give you useful insights, especially if you're just starting out or working with a specific group of users.

What is a good tree test score?

A good tree test score usually means that 80% or more of participants could finish the tasks successfully. This means they found the right items in your tree structure. But remember, what counts as a "good" score can change depending on what you're trying to achieve and how complex your site is.

It's important to know that tree testing isn't just about getting a high score. It's about understanding how people use your site and finding ways to make it better.

How to Do Tree Testing

To do a tree testing study, follow these steps:

1. Decide what you want to learn from the study
2. Create your tree structure based on your current or planned site organization
3. Come up with tasks that reflect real user goals
4. Choose a tree testing tool (there are free tree testing tools and paid options available)
5. Find participants
6. Run the study
7. Look at the results and identify areas for improvement

Let's look closer at some of these steps.

How to setup tasks for tree testing

Setting up good tasks is crucial for getting meaningful results from your tree test. Here's how to do it:

Build your tree

Start by creating a simple version of your site structure. Focus on the main categories and subcategories, leaving out any content pages. Keep your tree to no more than 3-4 levels deep to avoid overwhelming participants.

Write your tasks

Tasks should be realistic and reflect common user goals. For example, instead of asking "Where would you find information about tents?", you might ask "You're planning a camping trip and need a new tent. Where would you look for this?" This approach helps participants engage with the task more naturally.

Recruit participants

When finding participants, aim for a mix that represents your target audience. Think about factors like age, gender, tech skills, and familiarity with your product or industry.

Benefits of Tree Testing

Tree testing offers several key advantages for UX researchers:

• It gives clear, numerical data about how well your site structure works.
• It helps identify specific problem areas in your site organization, allowing for targeted improvements.
• It's relatively quick and cost-effective compared to other UX research methods.
• It can be done remotely, letting you gather data from people in different locations.
• It's versatile and can be used at various stages of the design process, from early ideas to checking existing structures.

Limitations of Tree Testing

While tree testing is a powerful tool, it's important to know its limitations:

• It doesn't consider visual design elements that might affect navigation on a real website.
• It may not capture the full context of how users would naturally look for information.
• The artificial nature of the test might cause some participants to overthink their choices.
• It doesn't provide insights into why users make certain choices, unless combined with other methods like interviews or think-aloud protocols.

When to use tree testing vs card sorting?

What is a card sorting test?

Card sorting is another UX research method used to improve site organization. In a card sorting test, participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them. This helps researchers understand how users think information should be structured.

What is the difference between card sorting and tree testing?

While both card sorting and tree testing are used to improve site organization, they serve different purposes and are typically used at different stages of the design process.

Card sorting is an open-ended, creative method. It's used to understand how users would naturally group and label content. This makes it particularly useful in the early stages of design when you're trying to create an initial structure for your site or app.

Tree testing, on the other hand, is a more focused, evaluative method. It's used to check an existing or proposed structure by seeing how well users can navigate through it. This makes it valuable both in the early stages (to test initial ideas) and later stages (to validate and refine structures).

Use card sorting when:

- You're starting a new project and need to create an initial site structure

- You're redesigning an existing site and want fresh insights into how users think about your content

- You want to understand how users think about and describe your content

Use tree testing when:

- You have an initial structure (either from card sorting or your own design) that you want to check

- You're choosing between multiple potential structures and want to see which works best

- You've made changes to your site structure and want to make sure they've improved findability

- You want to measure how well your current site performs before a redesign

In many cases, the best approach is to use both methods. Start with card sorting to generate ideas, then use tree testing to check and refine the resulting structure.

Tree Testing Tools: Pricing, Features

When it comes to conducting tree testing for UX research, there are several tools available, ranging from free tree testing tools to more advanced tree testing software. 

Let's explore some popular options for UX tree testing:

Optimal Workshop

Pricing: Starts as a free tree testing tool option; paid plans begin at $129/month.

Optimal Workshop offers a dedicated tree testing tool that helps UX researchers evaluate the effectiveness of their website's information architecture. It's a popular choice for those looking to conduct thorough tree testing UX studies.

Features:

• Quick insights generation: Rapidly gather and analyze user feedback on your site structure.
• Problem area identification: Pinpoint where users struggle to find information.
• Performance benchmarking: Use task success rates, time taken, and navigation paths to measure improvements over time.
• Data-driven decision making: Make informed choices about your site's organization based on user behavior.

UXtweak

‍Pricing: Paid plans start at €49/month.

UXtweak provides a comprehensive suite of UX research tools, including a robust tree testing feature. It's an excellent option for those seeking both free and paid tree testing software.

Features:

• Flexible tree building: Create trees from scratch, import from CSV, or download from live websites.
• In-depth analysis: Get actionable statistics for each task and analyze users' first clicks.
• Path and destination tracking: Understand exactly how and where users navigate.
• Respondent screening: Ensure your participants match your target audience.
• Extensive data exports: Generate CSV exports and PDF reports for further analysis and presentation.

Maze

Pricing: Begins as a free tree testing tool option; paid plans start at $99/month.

Maze is a user testing platform that includes tree testing among its features, allowing for both qualitative and quantitative data collection. It's a versatile tool for those looking to conduct various types of UX research, including tree testing UX studies.

‍Features:

• Findability assessment: Determine if users can locate items within your navigation structure.
• Follow-up questions: Dive deeper into user insights with additional queries.
• Instant reports: Get digestible, actionable reports that your team can use immediately.

UserTesting

Pricing: Tree testing is included in the Ultimate Edition; can be added to other plans for an additional cost.

UserTesting offers tree testing as part of its comprehensive user research platform, providing both quantitative and qualitative insights. While not a free tree testing tool, it offers robust features for in-depth UX tree testing.

‍Features:

• Combined insights: Get numerical data on success rates along with behavioral insights from session recordings.
• Confusion point identification: Understand which tasks users find particularly challenging.
• Navigation analysis: Learn why users choose certain paths through your content.

When choosing a tree testing tool, consider factors like your budget, the complexity of your projects, and the depth of analysis you need. Many of these tools offer free trials or free plans, allowing you to experiment with tree testing before committing to a paid solution.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is tree testing used for?

Tree testing is primarily used to evaluate the effectiveness of a website or application's information architecture. It's a key method in UX tree testing that helps researchers understand how easily users can find information within a site's structure. By simulating navigation through a simplified text version of the site hierarchy, tree testing reveals whether the organization and labeling of content make sense to users.

This tree testing UX method is particularly valuable when you're designing a new site, redesigning an existing one, or simply trying to improve user navigation. It can highlight areas where users get lost or confused, helping you make data-driven decisions about how to structure your content for optimal findability.

What are the questions of tree testing?

In tree testing, the "questions" are actually tasks that participants are asked to complete. These tasks are designed to mimic real-world scenarios that users might encounter when using your website or application. For example, if you're using a tree testing tool for an e-commerce site, a task might be: "You want to buy a new pair of running shoes. Where would you look for these?"

When creating tasks for tree testing UX studies, it's important to:

1. Use language that's natural and familiar to your users

2. Avoid using the exact words from your tree labels to prevent bias

3. Create tasks that cover different areas of your site structure

4. Include both common and less frequent user goals

Remember, the goal of tree testing is to see how users naturally navigate your site structure, so the tasks should feel realistic and relevant to them.

What's a good success rate on a tree test?

A generally accepted benchmark for a good success rate in tree testing is 80% or higher. This means that 80% of participants were able to successfully complete the given tasks by finding the correct items in the tree structure. However, it's important to note that this can vary depending on the complexity of your site and the specific goals of your UX tree testing study.

When interpreting tree test results, consider not just the success rate, but also the directness of the path taken (did users go straight to the correct location or wander around first?) and the time taken to complete each task. Sometimes, a lower success rate can actually provide more valuable insights by highlighting areas that need improvement.

Is tree testing a usability test? How to use tree testing with other usability testing methods?

While tree testing is a form of usability testing, it's more specifically focused on information architecture rather than overall usability. Tree testing helps you understand if users can find information, while other usability tests might look at how easily they can use that information once they've found it.

To get a comprehensive view of your site's usability, it's best to combine tree testing with other methods:

1. Card sorting: Use this before tree testing to understand how users naturally group your content. The relationship between tree testing vs card sorting is complementary, with each method providing unique insights.
2. Click testing: After tree testing, use click tests on your actual interface to see if the insights from tree testing translate to your visual design.
3. Task-based usability testing: Once you've refined your structure based on tree testing, conduct full usability tests to evaluate the entire user experience.

How is tree testing related to card sorting?

Tree testing and card sorting are both UX research methods used to improve a site's information architecture, but they serve different purposes and are typically used at different stages of the design process.

Card sorting is a generative method used to understand how users would naturally group and label your content. In an open card sort, participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and create labels for these categories. This helps researchers understand users' mental models and expectations about how information should be structured.

Tree testing, on the other hand, is an evaluative method used to validate an existing or proposed structure. It tests how well users can find information within a predefined hierarchy. While card sorting helps you create a structure, tree testing helps you verify if that structure works. This is a key difference in tree testing vs card sorting.

Why should tree testing follow card sorting?

Ideally, tree testing should follow card sorting in your UX research process. Here's why:

• Card sorting provides initial insights into how users think about and categorize your content. This helps you create an initial information architecture that aligns with user expectations.
• Once you've used card sorting results to inform your site structure, tree testing allows you to validate this structure. It helps you check if the organization you've created based on card sorting actually works for users in practice.
• By following this sequence, you're first generating ideas (with card sorting) and then evaluating those ideas (with tree testing). This approach helps ensure that your final information architecture is both user-centered and effective.

Remember, UX research is often iterative. You might do a round of card sorting, create a structure, test it with a tree testing tool, and then refine and test again until you achieve optimal results.

What is the difference between tree test and click test?

Tree testing and click testing are both valuable UX research methods, but they focus on different aspects of the user experience and are conducted in different ways.

Tree testing, as we've discussed, evaluates the findability of items within a site's information architecture. It uses a text-based representation of the site structure and asks users to locate items within this structure. Tree testing is about understanding if your site's organization and labeling make sense to users.

Click testing, on the other hand, focuses on visual design and layout. In a click test, participants are shown a static image of a webpage or app interface and asked where they would click to perform a specific action or find certain information. Click testing helps you understand if your visual design effectively guides users to important elements and if your layout is intuitive.

The main differences are:

• Format: Tree testing uses a text-based tree structure, while click testing uses visual designs.
• Focus: Tree testing evaluates information architecture, while click testing evaluates visual design and layout.
• Stage of design: Tree testing is often done earlier in the design process, while click testing is typically done once you have visual designs.

What can you learn with tree testing?

Here are some key things you can learn through UX tree testing:

• Findability: Discover how easily users can locate specific items or information within your site structure.
• Navigation patterns: Understand the paths users take to find information, including any detours or backtracking.
• Label clarity: Learn if your category and subcategory labels are clear and meaningful to users.
• Structure effectiveness: Determine if your overall site structure aligns with users' mental models.
• Problem areas: Identify specific parts of your site structure where users consistently struggle.
• Success rates: Measure how often users can successfully complete tasks within your site structure.

What are the prompts for tree testing?

In tree testing, prompts are the tasks or scenarios given to participants. These prompts guide users to find specific items within the tree structure, simulating real-world use of your website or application. Good prompts are crucial for getting meaningful results from your tree testing UX study.

Frame your prompts as situations users might actually encounter. For example, "You're planning a camping trip and need a new tent. Where would you look for this?" Avoid using exact label names, and include both straightforward and more complex tasks to test different aspects of your structure.

How much does Treejack cost?

Treejack, a popular tree testing tool by Optimal Workshop, offers several pricing tiers to suit different needs and budgets.

Optimal Workshop offers a free tree testing tool option that allows you to run one study at a time with up to 10 participants. This is great for small projects or for those just getting started with tree testing.

The paid plans start at $129 per month (billed annually) or $166 per month (billed monthly). These plans offer more features and allow for larger UX tree testing studies with more participants.

For large organizations or those needing advanced features, Optimal Workshop offers custom enterprise pricing for their tree testing software.