The Project

The Loyal Blues Fellowship website was in need of a significant information architecture (IA) overhaul. This was a school project and our team was tasked with redesigning the sitemap to improve usability and navigation. Through a series of UX research methods, including card sorting and tree testing, we identified major structural issues that hindered users from finding essential content such as blues lessons, event details, and membership information. Our goal was to create an intuitive and user-friendly IA that enhanced the overall experience.

Card Sorts

We conducted both open and closed card sorts to understand how users naturally categorized content and whether our proposed categories were intuitive.

Open Card Sort

In our open card sort, participants grouped album reviews, book reviews, and band reviews consistently, showing a clear mental model for "Reviews." Membership-related cards (e.g., membership costs, benefits, application forms) were frequently grouped together. There were also some confusing labels and outliers. We realized that these cards were either confusing in their labeling or belong on a different level of architecture than the rest.

Closed Card Sort

We refined category labels based on user input, ensuring clearer organization and easier navigation. Previously difficult-to-place cards became more uniform, with related items like review cards grouped under parent categories. We also renamed unclear labels, such as “Learning the Blues” and “Fellowship Bylaws,” for better clarity.

Key improvements included:  

• Renaming vague cards like "Blues 101" to make the Lessons category clearer
• Rewording Rules and Regulations for better understanding
• Addressing confusion around Blues in the Schools Events (as users were unsure if they belonged under "Events" or "Blues in the Schools") and bridging categories, such as linking Blues in the Schools Events under both sections to improve overall categorization.

Tree Testing

First Round Results

The initial tree test used the current Loyal Blues website's information architecture (IA) to assess how easily users could find key information. Participants were tasked with finding blues lessons and locating an upcoming event (Frankfurt Blues Festival). The results highlighted severe navigation issues: the overall success rate was 31%, and the directness rate was 40%, indicating that users often took incorrect paths before finding—or failing to find—the correct page. Completion times were long, signalling frustration and difficulty understanding the IA.

Task 1: Finding Blues Lessons
‍Only 2 of 21 participants (10%) succeeded. Users mistakenly assumed "Blues in the Schools" contained lessons, and many expected lessons to be under "Jam Nights," which was incorrect.

Task 2: Finding the Frankfurt Blues Festival
No participants succeeded. 95% clicked on "Events," assuming festivals would be listed there, but the correct path was under "Home" and buried in a sidebar, which users did not expect.

Second Round Results

After restructuring the IA, we conducted a second tree test to assess improvements. The results showed a significant boost in usability: the overall success rate increased from 31% to 88%, and the directness rate jumped from 40% to 80%, indicating users followed the correct path more often. Task completion times decreased, suggesting easier navigation.

Task 1: Finding Blues Lessons
‍Saw a success rate of 85% (up from 10%), with users confidently selecting "Learning the Blues" due to improved labeling, without needing to backtrack.

Task 2: Finding the Frankfurt Blues Festival
‍Had a success rate of 88% (up from 0%), with 80% of participants finding the correct path on the first click and no one misclicking into the wrong categories.

Part 2

Sitemap

After conducting our research with the card sorts and tree tests, our group made a sitemap with a more organized layout and deeper hierchy. The original website was messy, extremely disorganized and difficult to navigate. We wanted to create a sitemap that was simple and straightforward.

Part 3

Wireframes

After validating the new information architecture, we created wireframes to visualize how the redesigned structure would function on the site.

Last words

By applying UX research methods and iterative testing, we transformed a cluttered, confusing website into a clear and organized website. Some things I learned from this project:

• User research was critical: Card sorting and tree testing directly informed our redesign.
• Incremental testing refined the IA: The drastic improvement in success rates validated our approach.
• Clearer labels and hierarchy simplified navigation: Users found what they needed with minimal effort.