5 Reasons to Do IA Testing

Back in the “old days” — before the days of remote usability research, we would test navigation and information architecture with card sorts to understand how users would group similar chunks of content or tasks. They were called cart sorts because we literally used index cards. There were open card sorts, where the user would group cards into piles and then name the pile or closed card sorts, where the piles were named first and the users would put cards into the named piles. This became a pretty standard practice when designing more complex computer software, and later more complex websites.

Fast forward 25 years and we have many ways to test information architecture and navigation remotely. Card sorts, also called tree testing, can be easily done online through platforms like Optimal Workshop. Why then do some many teams skip this kind of research? Many UX teams jump right to visual design and make a ton of assumptions on how users logically group tasks, information, products — whatever the primary activities of the site or app are.

Here are the top 5 reasons we suggest including IA testing in the design process and keeping IA testing a priority:

1. Find-ability is really important. You can have the most compelling, engaging and relevant content tailor-made for your primary users. If they cannot find it, it is worthless. Do not hide the treasure chest — let people know where their treasure by giving them a good map.
2. Designing the wrapper is as important as designing the content. Along the same vein, it is important to create a hierarchy based on the most important tasks. IA is the structure. It creates a way to prioritize content that support the most important tasks.
3. Testing navigation assumptions helps further define the users tasks. Understanding the tasks, doing a task analysis, is a step many design teams either gloss over or skip all together. IA testing can inform a team about the most important tasks to primary users. Not all tasks are equally important. It is critical to know this and have those goals inform the design.
4. IA research can identify gaps and opportunities. When a team tests a proposed IA structure, there are often insights into missed opportunities or other pathways users are looking for. These are opportunities for additional features or enhancements in addition to assigning label names and categories.
5. IA Research Supports the “Goldilocks Effect.” Targeting the options that are “just right” for users can be difficult to do without testing the structure. Although the term “Goldilocks Effect” can often refer to choices in the UI during the sales flow, it also applies to choices a user names when looking for content. Too many choices are overwhelming and too few lead the user to wonder if there is anything of value there for them. Having an appropriate IA structure that matches the user’s goals and primary tasks is just right.

The long and the short of it, IA testing can be fast and easy to do. There is no reason to skip this step. Test the navigation structure before you get into visual design.