Tree testing questions

Tree testing questions let you discover how participants would work through a navigational structure to complete a desired objective or task. Let’s say you run an online clothing store and want to make sure certain articles of clothing can be found where your users expect them to be. Or maybe you’re developing a new music app and are unsure about the information architecture. With tree testing questions, you can find exactly what works for your users.

Tree testing settings

When adding a tree testing question to your study, you’ll customize your question in the center of the builder:

Here’s a breakdown of each option:

Add a tree testing question to a study

You’ll add tree testing questions on the Usability test or Media survey tab of your study.

To add a tree testing question to your study:

1. Navigate to the Usability test or Media survey tab of your study.
2. Click + Add in the center of the builder or in the left sidebar. 
   
   
3. Under Standard, select Tree testing. 
   
   
4. Enter the Prompt (instructions). 
   
   

5. Add nodes to build your Tree. Hover and click the + within a node to add child nodes. Your tree can have up to 300 nodes in total.

   Tip: Copy your tree structure from a spreadsheet and paste it into your question. For more information, see Copy and paste a tree structure.

   

6. (Optional) Add a success path to your question. For more information, see Add a success path to a tree testing question.
7. Click Done.

Now, your tree testing question is added to your study. When participants reach this question, they’ll see the provided instructions as well as a navigable version of your tree structure. They can move backward and forward within this structure before submitting their final response and moving on to the next question.

Copy and paste a tree structure

Instead of adding nodes to your tree manually, you can copy the structure from a spreadsheet and paste it into Dscout.

Spreadsheets must be in the following structure, with each node in its own cell and child nodes listed one column to the right of their parent node:

Pasting this example into Dscout results in the following tree structure:

Rearrange a tree structure

Once you've added your nodes, you can drag and drop them to rearrange your tree structure:

Add a success path to a tree testing question

If you have an ideal navigation path in mind, you can set that as a success path in Dscout to unlock additional insights during analysis. For example, with a set success path, you can view whether a participant took a direct route or an indirect route in their response.

To add a success path to a tree testing question:

1. After adding your tree structure, click Add success path. A success path modal is displayed with your entered tree structure. 
   
   

2. Select the final node that indicates success if selected by the participant.

   Tip: If there are multiple possible success paths, you can up to two nodes in this modal. Your selected success paths are displayed to the left of the tree structure.

   

3. Click Save.

Now, your success path is set. You’ll be able to compare participant responses to this path during analysis.

Analyze a tree testing question

From the Responses tab of your study, you can see how all of your participants completed the given objective overall or narrow your view to individual participant responses.

Questions view

The Questions view gives you an overview of all responses to a given tree testing question, including metrics on the directness of participant selections, average time on task, and more.

Here’s a breakdown of each metric:

You can also use the tabs below these metrics to open additional views. See the sections below for more information.

Participant data

Displays at-a-glance metrics for each participant’s response, including:

• Success: Whether the participant selected one of your designated success paths. This is only displayed if you selected a success path while building.
• Time: The amount of time the participant spent making their selection.
• Clicks: The number of clicks the participant took prior to submitting their selection.
• First click: The first node the participant selected while completing the task.
• Submission: The final node submitted by the participant.

Submitted nodes

Displays a list of every selected node as well as the percentage of participants who selected it.

Common paths

Displays the most frequently selected paths as well as the percentage of participants that selected them.

Start in a path refers to the place participants begin the task, before making a selection. You'll see this in the path any time a participant navigated back to this starting point. ← indicates backward navigation.

Participant paths

Displays the path selected by each individual participant.

Start in a path refers to the place participants begin the task, before making a selection. You'll see this in the path any time a participant navigated back to this starting point. ← indicates backward navigation.

First click

Displays every node that was selected first by at least one participant as well as the total number of participants who selected the node first.

Participants view

The Participants view gives you a closer look at individual participant responses to a tree testing question, including their submitted node, the path they took to get there, and more.

Here’s a breakdown of each metric: