If we have a simple tree and a willing audience of participants, we can get a simple tree test up and running in a day or two, and have results to act on a day or two after that. Call it a week.
If we’re testing several trees (which we recommend when designing a new site or redesigning an existing one) and collaborating with a project team, that week will likely grow to two as we brainstorm ideas, clean them up, test them, and decide how to act on the results.
Note that this does not mean it takes two weeks of full-time effort to run a set of tree tests. Some of that time will likely be spent waiting for stakeholders to review our trees and tasks, or waiting for participants to do their thing and generate results. In the meantime, we can be working on other aspects of our design.
For a sample test plan that includes timelines, see Documenting our plan in Chapter 4.
Next: Which types of sites are most suitable?