Card Sorting: User Experience Research
Published: 2020-07-27 22:39:38


## What is Card Sorting?

Card Sorting is a UX design technique, used to organize content into a logical format for a product or website. It helps designers in understanding the Information Architecture of a product. This technique is used to understand how users conceptualize ideas and gain insight into the user’s perspective, which aids in laying down the foundation for the entire navigational flow of a website. Users are provided with a set of labeled cards and are then asked to arrange, organize or sort them into categories. It becomes useful when you have already conducted basic research around users and are fully aware of the content of your product. Card Sorting can be conducted in numerous ways — it can be open card, closed card or a combination of both.

The first technique is Open Card Sorting. This technique is the most flexible and helpful way of gathering information from the user. The users are asked to organize the cards into groups, as per their relevance. They are then later asked to label them as per their understanding. Users are asked to explain why they chose the groups they did. This helps designers understand the ways users conceptualize information. The designer will have an idea of the infrastructure architecture to be laid and whether or not it falls under the end-users circle.

Closed Card Sorting on the other hand, is a technique where the participants are provided with a predefined set of categories. They are then asked to sort the cards within each category. This is the best technique to evaluate where the users agree to the information architecture that has been built. For example, if you are launching a product and you are unsure whether it should fall under a “sports” category, another similar category such as “leisure” or another category all together, such as “e-commerce”.

The middle ground is called Hybrid Card Sorting, which is a mixture of open and closed card sorting. The participants have the freedom to create their own categories if they disagree with the researcher’s predefined categories. This technique provides clarity on the researcher’s understanding of the product.

## Choosing A Specific Technique

There are numerous techniques that can be applied for conducting card sorting. These include One-on-One, Group, and Remote or Computer Based Sessions. One-on-One sessions are conducted in-person, where an observer is present. The participant is encouraged to express their ideas and think out loud while categorizing their cards. This provides the observer with a clear picture as to why the participant chose particular categories. This type of research can be conducted using computer software or physical cards.

Another technique that can be used is group research. This technique allows participants the choice to work as a group or independently to sort a set of cards. This can help explain group dynamics in usability testing.

Finally, Remote and Computer Based Sessions allows participants to work independently, while still participating in the research session. Both open and closed card sorting can be conducted remotely, and allows for greater diversity in and flexibility in research participants.

## How to Accomplish Card Sorting

The best way to accomplish your research sessions is to first choose the best method based on the type of information you require. For example, Open Card sorting with help you gather information and an insight into how the user conceptualizes the data. In contrast, Closed Card sorting will help you uncover whether or not users agree with your information structure, or if you need to clarify unclear or ambiguous categories.

Tips to help set up your session include: allowing for adequate time for the research to be conducted. One hour per session is usually a good starting point, but allow for more time as the number of cards in the study increases. For remote sessions, ensure there is adequate internet connection available, and proper space for participants and facilitators to sit comfortably.

After research data is collected, it’s time to analyze the outcome. Once the data is collected, you can use both qualitative and quantitive methods to find common trends and meaningful conclusions. 

The qualitative analysis deals with manually analyzing and understanding the relationships between the topics and the groups. You can merge the groups with similar content and can come up with an average mental model of that set of users.

The quantitive analysis deals with the statistics and numbers, such as number of relationships formed between groups In addition, heuristics and correlation are sometimes used to map out such data.

Card Sorting is a very simple, cost-effective method to approaching user experience research, that provides reliable and meaningful insights into usability patterns.