Tree testing: the roots for a successful website

Before we can delve into creating the shiny new content for our website, we need to decide on the fundamental structure of how we will organise and label the content. In other words the Information Architecture (IA).

Think of the website as a tree – the trunk is the homepage and each branch is a section of the website. Dorsetforyou holds information on  7 different councils in Dorset, so it’s a mighty oak that we’re dealing with and it’s critical we get this bit right.

Getting rid of the dead wood

Our current website is a deep forest and some parts are rather overgrown (I hope you’re not bored of the tree puns yet, there are a few more to come!). User testing and feedback has shown us that some customers struggle to find what they’re looking for as the information can be buried deep in the site.

With our new website we want to find ways to lose pointless layers of navigation. Instead, we’ll have a  wider site, so it doesn’t need to be so deep. A neat grove of well pruned trees, if you like.

Tree testing – making sure we’re making sense

Tree testing looks at how easily people can find information on a website, and it shows exactly where people get lost. It can help us find out if content is grouped logically for our users and if it’s labelled in a way that makes sense.

We’ve been using  this type of testing on our existing IA, based on the most popular  tasks that people complete on our site.

We recently launched the first tasks  on social media, through  our Dorsetforyou Facebook and Twitter accounts and we got an overwhelming response! We are using the results to help determine our new IA, focused on users’ needs, how they would choose to organise the website, and the everyday words they use for council services.

That’s the first bit done but there’s more user testing to come, so follow us on Facebook and Twitter and  keep an eye out if you’d like to get involved and help us build the new  Dorsetforyou.

Thank you

A big thank you to everyone that has completed the user testing so far, it’s helped us immensely. You’ve been tree-mendous!

Digital Team