Tree Testing

Letter T

Evaluation of a category hierarchy: people look for items in a tree, without UI. It measures whether they find things, not whether visual design helps.

Updated:

Working definition

Tree testing evaluates whether people can find items in a category hierarchy, without a visual interface. It measures labels and structure, not layout.

It complements card sorting: one generates grouping hypotheses; the other checks whether those labels make things findable. It does not replace usability testing in context.

Criterion

If the tree fails, the problem is IA or labeling. If the tree works and the UI does not, the problem is no longer the tree.