Web Publishing Community – October 2014: Optimal Sort and Treejack
This month’s Web Publishing Community session included updates on the implementation of Google’s Universal Analytics, improvements to the University website search and progress update on the EdWeb CMS. For me however, it was the case study on Optimal Workshop’s online tools, highlighting two online products that can help web editors to structure and label their content, that particularly caught my interest.
Optimal Sort
Neil Allison gave an overview of Optimal Sort, an exciting online card sorting programme. Having helped out at UWP paper-based card sorting events run by Lucy and Rachel B in the past, I found this particularly interesting: Optimal Sort, Neil explained, can create a set of virtual cards with descriptions, which participants can suggest groups and titles for.
Neil has used this in the past when looking at the new EdWeb interface – he wanted to tidy it up by grouping functionality together. Optimal Sort offers the possibility of both moderated and remote card sorting: Neil simply sent out a link to his card sort survey by email to the web community and received responses within minutes.
Treejack
Rachel B then gave us a great introduction to Treejack, which she had previously used when reorganising the homepage of the Students area of the website. Treejack enables you to test the information architecture of your site independent of any visual context and navigational aids within your pages: it simply tests the usability of your navigation.
By setting up a free Treejack account, Rachel was able to receive feedback from ten participants including information about how they travelled through her navigation and where they got stuck; as a result, she was able to use this to inform the restructure of the website.
Both tools provide a great start for reconsidering your website’s structure; for more advice on this, you can also book a slot to discuss your plans further with us at our Website Support Clinic.
Web Publishing Community presentations October 2014 (requires EASE login)
