We put a lot of emphasis on optimizing usability, user interactions and user interfaces. One area of the user experience that we often overlook testing on is information architecture. This is likely due to an absence of methods to test the effectiveness of information architecture. Sam Ng of Optimal Workshop saw the gap and built Treejack – an online test that helps site owners make decisions on their information architecture.
From the Treejack site:
Run simple online tests to get real numbers. Upload your sitemap, set tasks and see the paths participants take for each task. Results will focus your efforts on the areas of the IA that matter most.
The Scorpion King dvd Bloodline film Source: Treejack (Optimal Workspace)
download House of the Dead dvd
User testing is one of the best ways to gather insight on the pains and gains of your site’s user experience. It’s difficult to fully picture how your users interact and react to your site’s features, interface and information until you’ve actually seen them do it in their own natural environment. Unfortunately, unless you can be a fly on every one of your site’s visitors’ wall, gathering this kind of data is next to impossible without investing into expensive usability tests.
The Five Second Test is designed to help test the effectiveness of your site’s interface by exposing test subjects to it for 5 seconds. The test comes in 3 flavours:
The Blur Test involves blurring a site design, either by squinting, looking at it from a distance, or literally blurring it in Photoshop, in order to reveal the whitespace between typography and other visual elements. If blurring results in elements meshing together, more whitespace is required between them.