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Card Sorting

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What it is, what you learn, and benefits of Card Sorting
Types of Card Sorting Techniques
Conducting a Card Sort
Types of Sorting Techniques
Card Sorting Software

What it is, What You Learn, & Benefits of Card Sorting

Card sorting is a way to involve users in grouping information for a Web site. Participants in a card sorting session are asked to organize the content from your Web site in a way that makes sense to them. Participants review items from your Web site and then group these items into categories. Participants may even help you label these groups.

Card sorting helps you build the structure for your Web site, decide what to put on the home page, and label the home page categories. It also helps to ensure that you organize information on your site in a way that is logical to your users.

Types of Card Sorting Techniques

There are two types of card sorts: an open card sort and a closed card sort.

In an open card sort, participants are asked to organize the cards into groups that make sense to them and then name each group. In a closed card sort, participants are asked to sort items into pre-defined categories.

Open Card Sort

An open card sort is typically done when you want to learn how users group content and understand the terms or labels users call each category.

Closed Card Sort

A closed card sort typically works best when you are working with a pre-defined set of categories and you want to learn how users sort content items into each category.

By conducting an open card sort first, you can begin to identify categories of content. You can then use a closed card sort to see how well the category labels work.

Conducting a Card Sort

Facilitator Responsibilities

Getting the Cards Ready

List the content topics or types of information that you are likely to have on the site (if it's a new site) or list the most important / popular types of content on your current site.
- To help you create this list, begin by reviewing the content listed in your content inventory. Next, you need to identify the most important or most frequently used content.
Write each topic on a separate index card. (Hint: Use self-adhesive labels and a word processor. The cards will be neat, legible, and consistent. Also, you'll have the list of topics in the computer for later analysis.)
Limit yourself to 100 cards or less. (About 50 is a good number.)
Have blank cards available for participants to add topics and to name the groups they make when they sort the cards. (Hint: Consider using a different colored card for having participants name the groups.)
Number the cards in the bottom corner or on the back. (This helps you when you begin to analyze the cards.)

Arranging Cards for Sorting Sessions

Plan about one hour for each session - longer if you have many cards.
Arrange for a space where the participant has enough room to spread the cards out on a table. A conference room works well.
Plan to have someone take notes as the participant works and thinks aloud.
As with other techniques, arrange for payment or other incentives to thank the participant for spending the time and effort helping you.

Sorting Session

Show the participant the set of cards and explain that you are asking for help to find what categories of information should be on the site's home page and what those categories should be called. Explain that you want to see what groupings of cards make sense to the participant and that when the participant has grouped the cards, you will ask for a name for each group of cards.
Ask the participant to talk out loud while working. (This is the same technique you use in usability testing.) You want to understand the participant's thoughts and rationale.
Let the participant work. Also, let the participant add cards - for example, to indicate lateral hyperlinks or additional topics. Let the participant put cards aside to indicate topics the participant would not want on the site. Minimize interruptions but encourage the participant to think aloud.
At the end, if the participant has too many groups for the home page, ask if some of the groups could be combined for the home page.
Give the participant a stack of different colored cards and ask them to use the colored card to name each group. What words would the participant expect to see on the home page or second-level page that would lead the participant to that particular group of content items?
At the end, thank the participant and give the payment or other gift (if promised).

Analyzing Data

Use the numbers on the cards to quickly record what that participant has done. Write down the names that participant gave to each grouping and the numbers of the cards the participant included under that name. Then you can reshuffle the cards for the next session.
If you want a complete picture of the detailed site map each user has created, create a computer file for each session. Working from your original list of topics, move topics around to recreate each participant's groupings and enter that participant's name for the groupings.
For a less detailed analysis, use your notes and recordings of the participants' names and card numbers under each person's name to find commonalities from different sessions.
For a more detailed analysis, consider using an Excel spreadsheet to show the relationship between the cards or use one of the available software programs to analyze your data.

Types of Card Sorting Techniques

In-person sessions with an observer

The participant thinks aloud while sorting. You get the richness of the participant's thoughts.

Concurrent in-person sessions

Each participant sorts a set of cards independently. The facilitator may brief the participant at the beginning and debrief the participant at the end, but the participant works alone for most of the session. You can have many sessions at the same time with one facilitator. You must have as many sets of cards as concurrent sessions or have each participant at a separate computer.

Remote, computer-based sessions

You have many participants in many locations. You do not have observations or think aloud, so you get no information on why participants sort the cards the way they do.
Each participant sorts the cards independently on their own computer. You can preset the categories and have participants sort the cards into those categories or you can have the participants create their own categories. Several software programs exist to help you with large-scale remote card-sorting studies, and an advantage is that the software programs also analyze the data for you.

Card Sorting Software

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)'s card-sorting tool, WebCAT, may be downloaded and used for free.

For a list and description of commercially-available tools, visit the Society for Technical Communication's card sorting overview. For an article about card sorting with links to some tools visit, UsabilityNet's card sorting summary.

Next Steps

After you analyze the data from card sorting, you should have useful information for structuring your Web site—for the information architecture of the site. You should use the results of your card sort to help you Define the Navigation of your Web site.

Next, you must create good content by Writing for the Web.