card sorting & tree testing webinar

Webinar:

Unlocking the Secrets of Great Site Navigation

Online Card Sorting + Tree Testing

July 13th, 2011

Webinar Overview

1. Introductions & Goals

2. What is Card Sorting?

Why is it useful and poweful?

How to run remote (online) CS research

3. What is Tree Testing?

Why is it useful and poweful?

How to run remote (online) TT research

4. The Benefits of Combining Both Methods

5. Q&A

Introductions

Alfonso de la Nuez

Co-Founder, Co-CEO

at UserZoom

Ania Rodriguez

Founder and CEO at

Key Lime Interactive

Kim Oslob

Dtor. Client Services

at UserZoom

4 quick facts about UserZoom

Leading SaaS company specializing in Online UX Research

We help businesses create excellent user experiences

Our software solution includes 8 different tools to run UX research

Around for about 9 years, offices in Sunnyvale (CA), Cheshire (UK) and Barcelona (Spain)

About Key Lime Interactive Experienced market research and

usability professionals Over 12 years of consulting experience

testing Internet 500 websites and providing actionable results

Most consultants have Masters in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Industry Engineering or related field

Cross-Industry Expertise Ability to scorecard against competition

Ability to suggest cross-industry recommendations to improve ease of use

Independent Third Party Impartial with no-hidden agenda

Ability to work with business team and developers to “get everyone onboard”

Expert Reviews

Webinar Goals

The WHAT: Understand relationships between items and groups. Defining naming structures. Ensuring navigational structure is optimized.

The WHY: Benefits of using each method together or independently.

The HOW: Understand how to create and collect data in a short period of time using an online remote method.

Before we begin, let’s take a quick poll to get to know you better…

What is Card Sorting?

Typical scenario John is an Information

Architect working on a redesign of a website. Part of it includes to clearly redefine the items under each menu.

Internally they’ve not been able to agree with one optimal way to categorize information.

So he wants to ensure the category labels that they’ve created are easy to understand for their customers and visitors”

How does Card Sorting help?

Card Sorting: Definition and Benefits

Card sorting is a method to gather insights about how items are categorized naturally in users’ mental model. There are two types:

Closed Card Sort: Items and Categories are pre-defined

Open Card Sort: Categories are not pre-defined; Users name the categories

It is a useful and powerful to conduct this type of research when:

Visitors to your site or application are having a hard time finding the right information

Web analytics data shows that your participants are going in circles

Convergence data is lower than desired

How to Read Dendograms

Choose clusters that are as compact and distinct as possible.

Compactness - how similar the elements of a cluster are to one another

Distinctness – how different one cluster is from its closest neighbor

The compactness of a cluster represents the minimum distance at which the cluster comes into existence. The horizontal axis of the dendrogram measures the distance between clusters. If a cluster contains only one observation, its compactness is 0.

The distinctness of a cluster is the distance along the X-axis from the point at which it comes into existence to the point at which it is aggregated into a larger cluster.

Linkage Distance

Node

Node

Distinctness

Node

Compactness

What an Online Card Sort looks like

Participants organize and group items according to association

Items are grouped under category names that make sense to participants to be located in

Card Sort Pilot Study

Participants grouped brands, ordering info, account info, and savings into distinct groups.

Floaters were detected indicating possible presence in two categories.

At least one runt indicated lack of understanding of the association and/or meaning

Card Sort Study (Closed)

Participants placed items into these distinct groups: Ink & Toner, Specials, Copy Print, My Account, and Customer Service.

Floaters were detected indicating possible presence in two categories.

Example of How to Use Card Sort Results

Let’s take poll #2 now!

What is Tree Testing?

Typical scenario

Prior to creating a prototype, John wants to ensure that customers will be able to navigate the new site structure successfully.

With the stakeholders there are high expectations that the new design will increase purchasing conversion.

This conversion is based on findability.

How does Tree Testing help?

Why is it a useful and poweful research method

Tree Testing allows you to visually test the navigation and findability of your site structure.

Detects navigational issues early on prior to building a prototype or dynamic site.

What an Online Tree Testing looks like

Participant locates where they would find and item in a site structure

Participant selects items once found or navigates through a different path until found

UserZoom calculates percentages of first, all attempts, success and error.

Tree Testing Pilot Study

When asked to locate a mouse pad, only 42% of the participants were successful on first attempt.

It took 54% of the participants multiple attempts to locate the mouse pad under Computers > Computer Accessories

Ninety-Six participants were successful in total.

Tree Testing Pilot Study

Common areas of error were Paper & Pads (26%) and Office Supplies (54%)

Secondary areas of error were Ink & Toner (10%) and Copy & Print (6%)

Tree Testing Pilot Study

When asked to locate a 3-ring binder, 58% of the participants were successful on first attempt.

It took 38% of the participants multiple attempts to locate the 3-ring binder under Binders & Accessories > Non-View Binders

Ninety-Six participants were successful in total.

Tree Testing Pilot Study

Common areas of error were Paper & Pads (24%) and Copy & Print (10%)

Secondary area of error was Copy & Print (10%)

Tree Testing Pilot Study

Participants rated locating a 3-ring binder as slightly easier than a mouse pad.

It took 20% more of the participants multiple attempts to locate a mouse pad.

Locate Mouse Pads

Locate 3- Ring Binder

The Benefits of Combining Both Methods

The Benefits of Combining Both Methods

Define the groupings and menu categories from a Card Sort

Define the site structure from the results of the Card Sort and validate through the Tree Test

Ensure more reliable site navigation by combining the methods

Q&A

Please don’t go yet! Let’s take the final poll…

UserZoom (USA)

440 N. Wolfe Rd. Sunnyvale,CA 94085 Phone: +1 (408) 524 7445 Contact: Alfonso de la Nuezalfonso@userzoom.com

Key Lime Interactive

1221 Brickell AvenueMiami FL 33131Phone: 1 (305) 804 2930

Contact: Ania Rodriguezania@keylimeinteractive.co

Thanks so much for your time!Check out our upcoming news and events at

www.userzoom.com www.keylimeinteractive.com