Dave O’Brien Dave has been researching, designing, and testing user interfaces for 20 years in North America and New Zealand. In the IA community, he is best known for designing Treejack, the online tree-testing tool from Optimal Workshop.
Section One Admitting we have a problem
Bad Labeling
What’s to blame? • Site structure ≠ users’ mental model • Labels not clear and distinguishable • Careless dumping of content over time
Section One Why should we care?
How to find navigation problems in your website 1. Analytics 2. Navigation testing 3. Tree testing 4. First-click testing
Cheap and fast $
Finding and fixing navigation problems 2
Testing late
Kissmetrics analytics
Playing back sessions with UserTesting.com
First-click testing with Chalkmark
Testing early
Create the site tree
Add some typical tasks
Add survey questions
Volunteer?
Tree testing isolates 2 basic elements
Section Three Tree testing: analysis
Can users find items in our site?
Success rate
Where are the problems?
Where the heck did they go? Find the lowest cost home broadband subscription
Can they find things directly, without having to backtrack?
Backtracking
“Download a TrueTone ringtone for your cell phone”
“Download a TrueTone ringtone for your cell phone”
Can they choose between topics quickly?
Speed
Speed
Which parts of our tree don’t work well?
Which parts of our tree do work well?
Why we like tree testing • Easy to set up • Easy for users to do (~5 minutes for 10 tasks) • Isolates the organisation and labelling • Analysis is straightforward and visual • Lets us compare alternatives early • Cheap and quick to do • Reduces risk early in the project
Testing navigation (first-click testing) 4
Test navigation early
Create the screens
Add some typical tasks
Add survey questions
Still brave?
Section Four First-click testing: analysis
Selected areas
Why just test first clicks?
What we find in first-click tests • Labels that are not clear and distinguishable from each other • Important targets that get “lost” in the clu er • Items that a racted clicks, but aren’t actually clickable • Slow clicks (both right and wrong) • Fast clicks to the wrong targets
How these methods fit in a project 5
Tree testing Card sorting First click testing + other tools The world is ge ing easier
Cheap and fast $
Going wide with Meridian Energy
Iterative design is not enough
Hammer vs. screwdriver
Generate many designs
1 2 3 4 Lather, rinse, repeat The wide/deep framework
• Create several site trees • Tree-test “wide” until one wins • Tree-test deep until it’s solid • Create wireframes/mockups • Nav-test “wide” until one wins • Nav-test deep until it’s solid • Usability-test the final design or early code The overall process
2015 KISSmetrics Guide KISSmetrics Demo h p://kiss.ly/growth h p://kiss.ly/demo
3. Dave O’Brien
Dave has been researching, designing, and testing user
interfaces for 20 years in North America and New
Zealand. In the IA community, he is best known for
designing Treejack, the online tree-testing tool from
Optimal Workshop.
Thue Madsen - KISSmetrics - @ThueLMadsen
Thue is the KISSmetrics Webinar Wizard and Marketing
Ops Specialist. Before joining forces with KISSmetrics, he
was a Ly driver in SF, which is also how he ended up as a
KISSmetrics marketer.
Whenever Thue is not trying to automate everything
around him, you can find him fishing and hiking in the
Sierras.
4. 1 The problem of bad navigation
Testing early
Testing late
2 Finding and fixing navigation problems
3 Testing organization and labels (tree testing)
Table of Contents
4 Testing navigation (first-click testing)
5 How these fit in a project
16. “Ge ing to the right page within a website or
intranet is the inevitable prerequisite to
ge ing anything done.”
— Jakob Nielsen, Web usability guru
58. Why we like tree testing
• Easy to set up
• Easy for users to do (~5 minutes for 10 tasks)
• Isolates the organisation and labelling
• Analysis is straightforward and visual
• Lets us compare alternatives early
• Cheap and quick to do
• Reduces risk early in the project
• And best of all…
75. “Based on our findings, we suggest
that you work hard to ensure that
the first click is a correct click.”
— Bob Bailey, WebUsability.com
76.
77. What we find in first-click tests
• Labels that are not clear and distinguishable from
each other
• Important targets that get “lost” in the clu er
• Items that a racted clicks, but aren’t actually
clickable
• Slow clicks (both right and wrong)
• Fast clicks to the wrong targets
85. Current site
• Why join us?
• Residential
• Business
• Agribusiness
• Residential pricing
• Join
• Offers
• Save energy & money
• Residential
• Business
• etc.
• My account
• My bill
• etc.
• About us
Idea 1
• Residential
• Plans and pricing
• Offers
• etc.
• Small business
• Plans and pricing
• etc.
• Corporate
• Products and pricing
• etc.
• Farm
• Plans and pricing
• etc.
• My Account
• About us
Idea 2
• Join
• Join
• Moving
• Plans and rates
• Residential plans
• Business plans
• etc.
• Better off with us
• Great online tools
• etc.
• Your account
• My bill
• How to pay
• etc.
• About us
46% 43% 47%
Tree testing – round 1
86. Idea 1
• Residential
• Plans and pricing
• Offers
• etc.
• Small business
• Plans and pricing
• etc.
• Corporate
• Products and pricing
• etc.
• Farm
• Plans and pricing
• etc.
• My Account
• About us
Idea 2
• Join
• Join
• Moving
• Plans and rates
• Residential plans
• Business plans
• etc.
• Better off with us
• Great online tools
• etc.
• Your account
• My bill
• How to pay
• etc.
• About us
Tree testing – round 1
87. Tree 3
• Your home
• New customers
• Current customers
• etc.
• Agribusiness
• New customers
• etc.
• Small/med business
• New customers
• etc.
• Large business
• New customers
• etc.
• About us
70%
Tree testing – round 2
88. Current site
• Why join us?
• Residential
• Business
• Agribusiness
• Residential pricing
• Join
• Offers
• Save energy & money
• Residential
• Business
• etc.
• My account
• My bill
• etc.
• About us
Idea 1
• Residential
• Plans and pricing
• Offers
• etc.
• Small business
• Plans and pricing
• etc.
• Corporate
• Products and pricing
• etc.
• Farm
• Plans and pricing
• etc.
• My Account
• About us
Idea 2
• Join
• Join
• Moving
• Plans and rates
• Residential plans
• Business plans
• etc.
• Better off with us
• Great online tools
• etc.
• Your account
• My bill
• How to pay
• etc.
• About us
43%
Meridian – what if?
95. • Create several site trees
• Tree-test “wide” until one wins
• Tree-test deep until it’s solid
• Create wireframes/mockups
• Nav-test “wide” until one wins
• Nav-test deep until it’s solid
• Usability-test the final design or early code
The overall process
96. • Create several site trees
• Tree-test “wide” until one wins
• Tree-test deep until it’s solid
• Create wireframes/mockups
• Nav-test “wide” until one wins
• Nav-test deep until it’s solid
• Usability-test the final design or early code
The overall process
97. • Create several site trees
• Tree-test “wide” until one wins
• Tree-test deep until it’s solid
• Create wireframes/mockups
• Nav-test “wide” until one wins
• Nav-test deep until it’s solid
• Usability-test the final design or
early code
The overall process
99. • Bad navigation is a major problem
• You can test late, but testing early lowers
your risk and your cost
• Nail your organization and labelling first
with tree testing
• Test your page layouts and navigation with
nav testing or first-click testing
• Go wide with competing ideas
before you go deep on one
• Choose tools that let you go fast without
breaking the bank
Summary
100. • Donna Spencer: paper testing
h p://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/
card_based_classification_evaluation
• Dave O’Brien: online tree testing
h p://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/tree-testing
• Step Two Designs: tree-testing overview
h p://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_treetesting
• Treejack so ware (Optimal Workshop)
www.optimalworkshop.com/treejack
Tree testing – Learn more
101. • Finding and solving 3 common usability
problems
h p://neoinsight.com/insights/articles/2012/09/08/first-click-test-to-find-and-
solve-3-common-usability-problems/
• TV interface testing with Chalkmark
h ps://www.optimalworkshop.com/blog/testing-tv-interfaces-with-chalkmark/
• Testing accordion menu designs & iconography
h p://viget.com/inspire/testing-accordion-menu-designs-iconography
• Chalkmark so ware (Optimal Workshop)
www.optimalworkshop.com/chalkmark
First-click testing – Learn more