Improve your navigation with Tree Testing

Last updated: November 3, 2026

Tree testing allows you to test navigation branches. It's a great way to validate the ease of finding items in your product structure, even before designing.

If you're designing from scratch, it might be helpful to start with card sorting first, then tree testing. Already have a site map? You can import it instead of building your tree page by page.

Who can use this feature?

Tree testing is available on the Enterprise plan.

Use cases

Tree testing can answer questions like:

So that you can:

Do my labels make sense?

Validate ideas before designing

Is my content grouped logically?

Test the usability of your navigation

Can users find the information they want easily and quickly? If not, what's stopping them?

Build a foundation for the design that will lay on top of your product structure

How to create a Tree Test

To create a Tree Test in Maze:

  1. Open your draft study, or create a new one.

  2. In the blocks list, click Add block, then select a Tree Test block from the drop-down.

  3. Type your Task. Optionally, add extra details in the Description.

  4. 4. Build your Tree Structure: add pages one by one, or import an existing tree. Then organize them to match your product structure.

You can see how this block will appear to participants on the right-side Preview panel.

Import a tree

Instead of adding pages manually, you can bring in a tree you already have. In the Tree Structure, click [Import], then choose one of these options:

  • Upload a CSV. Use one column per level of your tree, up to six levels.

  • Paste from a spreadsheet. Copy cells from Excel or Google Sheets and paste them into the paste box. Use the same layout: one column per level.

  • Type an outline. Enter pages in the paste box and nest them with dashes or bullets. For example:

Home
- Products
-- Pricing
- Support

Not sure how to format your file? Download the [template] from the import window to start from the right structure.

Export a tree

To edit a tree in a spreadsheet or reuse it in another study, click [Export] in the Tree Structure. Maze downloads the tree as a CSV, in the same one-column-per-level format used for import.

Analyzing Tree Test results

Once participants start completing your study, you'll see in the results both the most popular final category selected by participants (listed as the "End screen"), and the most common hierarchy that participants selected (listed under "Most common paths").

This allows you to see at a glance if there's consensus or disagreement over how to categorize/navigate to content.

See this case study to learn how the team at West Monroe used a tree test to explore different directions in their site navigation.
Still need help?

If you have any questions or concerns, please let our Support team know — we'll be happy to help!