UXbeamVisual Field Guide
5 Ways to Combine Card Sorting and Tree Testing
A visual guide to choosing the right research sequence for your navigation problem.
- Card sorting
- Tree testing
- Candidate structure
- 1
Pattern 1: Discover a new navigation
- Open card sort
- Candidate structure
- Tree test
Use this when:
You are building a site or feature area and need a first navigation that reflects how people understand its content.
- 2
Pattern 2: Test the categories, then the routes
- Open card sort
- Closed card sort
- Tree test
Use this when:
An open sort suggests categories, but important content placements still need checking.
- 3
Pattern 3: Compare competing structures
- Card sort
- Two candidate trees
- Tree-test comparison
Use this when:
Participants reveal more than one coherent way to organize the same content, or the team has several credible navigation ideas.
- 4
Pattern 4: Improve an existing navigation
- Baseline tree test
- Card sort
- Retest revised structure
Use this when:
The existing site has recurring wrong turns, buried destinations or categories that no longer accommodate the content.
- 5
Pattern 5: Organize a large content inventory
- Inventory
- Card sort + content mapping
- Tree test
Use this when:
A redesign or migration involves far more pages than you would reasonably hand to one participant to sort.