A typical tree test works like this:

1. The participant is given a “find it” task (e.g., “Look for brown belts under $25″).
2. They are shown a text list of the top-level topics of the website.
3. They choose a heading, and are then shown a list of subtopics.
4. They continue choosing (moving down through the tree) — drilling down, backtracking if necessary – until they find a topic that satisfies the task (or until they give up).
5. The participant does several tasks in this manner, starting each task back at the top of the tree.
6. Once several participants have completed the test, the results are analyzed for each task.

Want to learn more?

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