Card Sorting Demystified—Hands-On Techniques for Organizing Your Website

Course Description

In this workshop, Cory Lebson will define information architecture and describe how to create a hierarchy of information, both within and between web pages. He'll discuss how different users expect to find information in different ways and the importance of good navigation.

Cory will examine the different methods for evaluating information architecture to improve site organization. You'll review the ins and outs of paper card sorts and will try your own sort. You will get practical tips for analyzing the data from a sort and translating the analysis into actionable recommendations for improvement. In addition to the paper sort, you'll also try out some online tools for doing sorts and for conducting subsequent analyses.

The class will be encouraged to ask questions throughout and answers to these questions will be woven into the presentation. We will also individually and as a group do some card sorting and analysis activities throughout the morning.

What You'll Learn

• What information architecture is and why it is important.
• How best to evaluate your site’s information architecture using different types of card sort techniques to collect data.
• How to prepare both a paper-based card sort and an electronic card sort using online tools.
• How best to analyze results from the sort, and translate these results into actionable recommendations.

Who Should Attend

Government web managers interested in improving the organization of information on their site(s).

About the Instructor

Cory Lebson is the owner of Lebsontech LLC, a user-research company, and has worked on numerous usability projects for government, non-profit, e-commerce, and educational organizations since 1995. He has been involved in mobile design and evaluation since 2000, including work for government and medical institutions, as well as for a mobile service provider.

Cory has been speaking about usability and technology for the past 15 years and conducts regular training seminars in mobile design as well as usability, accessibility, information architecture, search engine optimization, and web analytics. He is the president of the Usability Professionals Association DC chapter and has an MBA focusing in marketing and technology management, as well as an MA in sociology and a BS in psychology.