Test: Navigation test
Navigation tests are great for when you want to know how participants navigate your prototype. In a navigation test your participants are given a scenario to set the scene and then asked to complete different tasks in your prototype.
With a navigation test, you can:
- Understand your participants’ mental models
- Identify if your prototype is meeting your participants' expectations about how it should work
- Identify if icons and labels in menus or on buttons are easily understood
- Investigate your prototype’s hierarchical structure and information architecture and get ideas for how to improve it
- Identify your participants’ cognitive strain by how much reading, remembering, and decisions making required before archiving the overall goal
Step-by-step guide to setting up a navigation test in Preely
Step 1. Upload prototype
From the start screen click “Create test”. Choose device and upload your prototype or make it directly in Preely (screenshot, Adobe XD-, Figma- or Sketch artboards, or via InVision Cloud link).
Step 2. Create task
Click 'Insert new element', choose 'Add task'. Write introduction to the task and the task your participant should do. Click 'Save'. Click 'Add ending' and choose between endpoint or timer.
‘Endpoint’: This means that your participants should click on this certain spot in your prototype to end the task.
‘Timer’: This means that you set a timer on the last screen in your task and after a set amount of time, the task is ended.
Example:
Introduction: You are visiting our website for the first time. You have some questions regarding our services and want to contact us.
Task: Find our email address.
Step 3. Ask questions
Click 'Insert element' and choose 'Add question'. Then fill in the questions and choose answer type (rating, multiple choice or free response).
Example of question:
- How easy was it to find the mail address? Answer type: Rating (Semantic Differential Scale). Labels: Very difficult - Very Easy
- Consider adding a follow-up question: Why did you give this rating?
Step 4. Analytics:
Success rate:
If the participant can perform the task or not.
Time on task:
How long it took the participants to complete the task.
Number of Paths:
Number of paths indicates if the participants are confused and have been looking multiple places before completing the task. The different paths are good indicators for the participants’ mental models (together with Actions).
Actions:
Here you can see how your participants have clicked throughout your prototype. This gives a very good indicator on the participants mental model (together with paths).
Screen statistics:
- Avg. time to first action: Indicates how big the participants’ cognitive strain have been
- Total visits compared to Unique visits: When the Total number of visits is high compared to Unique visits, this indicates confusion af where the participants have been searching and maybe they have started over. To this you can add Avg. time on screen as a good indicator for how difficult the task was
- Hotspot hit ratio: We want this high. If it’s low your participants have struggled in finding their way around your prototype
- Top 3 next screens: Great source for where your participants have been looking for relevant information
Note: You can click on the different Link spots and see how many have click in that specific area.
Paths:
Often designers have an ideal path in mind, when designing a digital product. Number of paths indicates if the participants are confused and have been looking multiple places before completing the task. The different paths are good indicators for the participants’ mental models.
