Artikel - When should you test the navigation of your website or app?

When should you test the navigation of your website or app?

You can have the most beautifully designed site or app, but if your audience can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll leave in no time. That’s why it’s essential to focus on your navigation — and test it. You can do that using methods like Cardsorting or Treejacking, or a combination of both. This article briefly explains these methods and when to use them.

The difference between Cardsorting and Treejacking

For very basic, simple sites and apps, a navigation structure isn’t all that exciting. If you’re only selling a few products, there’s little point in testing your navigation. But the more services, products, or pages you have, the more important it becomes to think carefully about the structure. You only have limited space on your screen. So keeping an overview can be quite a challenge. The best way to get your navigation right is to talk to your users, to learn what makes sense to them. That can be done through Cardsorting or Treejacking.

You only have limited space on your screen. So keeping an overview can be quite a challenge.

With Cardsorting, you go back to basics. You let users shape your navigation. Imagine working at a company that sells notebooks, socks, binders, cosmetics, photo books, and a thousand and one other products. You can determine the structure of your site yourself, but in such a complex environment, it’s wiser to carry out a cardsort. You let your target audience label and group all the products. What do they think belongs together? What do they expect to find where? What do they call things? What words do they use for the groups? An internal term is often used as a menu item, because: that’s what we call it. But that’s not necessarily what users call it. A cardsort helps you tackle those kinds of biases.

An internal term is often used as a menu item, because: that’s what we call it. But that’s not necessarily what users call it.

A Treejack looks very different. It starts from what’s already there. You test an existing navigation or a developed concept navigation. You let participants go through your site, app, or prototype with a specific task. You ask them to look something up. To navigate to a particular product. You record what they do, and observe their clicking behavior. This way, you learn whether users find what they’re looking for and what route feels logical to them. Usually, in a treejack you don’t just test one navigation, but several variants, so you can compare them. That way, you immediately know which one performs better.

Cardsorting and Treejacking often go hand in hand. You start with a cardsort to discover how users would organize your navigation. Based on that, you create a concept navigation. Then you run a treejack to validate that concept.

When should you test your navigation?

You can do a Cardsorting or Treejacking study at any time. But at certain moments, it’s especially important to test your navigation with users.

Many new products

Suppose you have a webshop. It’s doing so well that new products are constantly being added to your assortment. That has a big impact on your navigation structure. In that case, you run a cardsort (and a treejack). You test with users what they find logical, how they would categorize products. That way, you ensure that changes to the structure don’t get in the way of the user experience.

A site or app that has steadily grown over the years

You once had a clear, focused core business, but over the years more and more has been added. Other services, product categories, or a sub-brand. Everything has been gradually ‘tacked on.’ And that’s exactly how it feels to the user. There’s no clear cohesion, and the sprawl of features creates a complex navigation maze. At a moment like that, it’s important to reassess your navigation.

Internal decisions

Sometimes changes to your navigation are the result of internal decisions. Management considers a certain part of your site important, and therefore it gets a spot in your main navigation. It’s important to first check how much impact that change will have. If your navigation doesn’t work well or intuitively, you’ll get frustrated customers. Customers who can’t find their way.

If your navigation doesn’t work well or intuitively, you’ll get frustrated customers. Customers who can’t find their way.

Want to read more about how we approach Cardsorting and Treejacking? You can do that here.