Analytic Design Group Inc. has developed a proprietary navigation testing tool (called Navtester) that allows us to use a 'design & test' methodology when developing information architectures. Navtester allows us to user-test proposed site structures remotely.
We use an iterative test cycle to test and then refine the structure, and by using real users of your site, we can be sure that the information structure will be superior. And because the test is online and takes only around 15 to 20 minutes, the participation rate for the test is very high for very little cost (compared to other labour and scheduling intensive methods like card sorting).
The interesting thing we have found about using this tool and testing navigation structures in this way is that it focuses exclusively on the information architecture (navigation structure + labels) because it strips out everything else about the site. The result is that we get the user’s unbiased and unfiltered view of the proposed structure and how successful it will be, without influence from page layout, content, or graphics.
