Once your tree test is set up in your online tool, the first way to “test your test” is to try it using yourself as the participant.
How you do this depends on the tool you’re using:
- Some tools provide a preview mode where the person setting up the test (you) can see try it out as if they were a participant. The difference is that no results are saved in this preview mode.
- If the tool doesn’t offer a way to preview the test, you may need to launch it as a real study, then try it yourself before sending it to your real audience.
If you find things that need revising, the tool should give you a way to make your fixes, either by editing the current test or by duplicating it and editing the new copy.
Despite how carefully you enter your tree and your tasks and the other setup options, it’s not until you try the test as a participant that you see it all in the right order and in the right context, and almost always you’ll instantly see things that aren’t quite right.
- Maybe the tree has a few glitches because of missing indents.
- Maybe one of your tasks now strikes you as ambiguous.
- Maybe there’s a typo in your thank-you message.
In any case, it’s time well spent to find it now rather than later.
Next: Running a pilot test