Card Sorting
Card sorting is a technique for determining how to organize information to best align with users’ expectations. By asking users to sort your content into their own categories, card sorts help you define a structure for presenting information that makes it easier for people to find what they’re looking for.
Card sorting may be helpful when:
- Your customers can’t find what they need on your site, even when that information is available
- Your application is used by different types of people, each requiring a unique but overlapping set of content and functionality
- You have a large body of information that could be organized in many ways, and your internal team can't reach consensus
- You’re implementing a new content management system, and you want to structure the site’s content logically
- You want to understand the relative importance of current or potential features to your users
How Card Sorting Works
In a card sort, participants are asked to organize a set of index cards into categories that make sense to them. Each card contains a brief description of a piece of content or functionality that may be included in an application. (For example, cards for a corporate intranet might include “our vacation policy” or “an expense reimbursement form”.) After grouping the cards into categories, participants are then asked to name each group and describe their rationale for placing those items together.
The data from all participants are analyzed to produce statistically reliable clusters that illustrate how users think about the information you’re providing. This can help you organize your offering to align more closely with user expectations, making it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. Data from different types of users (employees v. customers, for example) may be examined independently to reveal any differences in how those audiences approach your application.
In addition to helping you create an efficient information architecture, card sorting can be used to gauge users’ interest in current or potential features. Asking participants to sort a set of cards into piles based on their relative importance can provide direction for determining whether or not a new concept is worth pursuing. (To supplement this approach with a larger sample size, you might also consider using a survey.)
Card sorting can be conducted in dedicated one-on-one research sessions, and it can be easily combined with other user research methods. Adding a card sort to a focus group can help you gather information from each individual prior to beginning a group discussion. Card sorting can also be added to a usability test to gather feedback on proposed content/functionality that isn’t included in the site or prototype to be tested.