Card Sorting
❓What is it
- Card sorting is a user-centred design technique used to explore how users group and categorize information, helping designers create or refine the information architecture of websites, apps, and other systems.
- This technique is particularly valuable in designing intuitive navigation structures and layouts based on users' mental models rather than the organization's internal perspectives or terminologies.
- Its specific purpose is to (1) understand how users perceive relationships and hierarchies between different pieces of content, (2) inform the structure and organization of a digital asset such as website, (3) improve or validate the design of navigation paths and menu structures.
👥Who
- Service Designer or User Researcher
🛠 Running the technique
- Preparation: Decide on the pieces of content or functionalities you want insights on. Write each piece on a separate card (physical cards, sticky notes, or digital equivalents).
- Sorting: Ask participants to sort the cards into groups that make sense to them. There are two main types of card sorting:
- Open Card Sorting: Participants create their own groups and name them. This method is useful for gaining insights into users' mental models and terminologies.
- Closed Card Sorting: Participants sort the cards into predefined categories. This is helpful when refining an existing structure.
- Analysis: After the sorting is complete, analyse the data to identify patterns, commonalities, and outliers in how participants grouped and labelled the cards. Further iterations of the exercise maybe valuable where the initial changes were substantive