What are the different types of card sorting?
The primary types of card sorting are open card sorting and closed card sorting. These methods differ in how participants interact with categories. Open card sorting allows participants to create their own categories and labels, providing insights into natural user groupings, while closed card sorting requires participants to sort into predefined categories, which is useful for validating existing structures. A less common third type, hybrid card sorting, combines both approaches for more nuanced results.
How do you conduct a card sort?
To conduct a card sort, begin by outlining your research criteria and selecting a list of clearly labeled content items. Choose participants who reflect your intended audience, then ask them to arrange the cards according to their methods. The way participants group cards produces information on their perception of common content groupings. Online systems, such as OptimalSort or UserZoom, are options often used to handle card sorting and result compilation more efficiently in a digital setting rather than on paper.
What are some common mistakes to avoid when conducting card sorting?
In card sorting, examples of procedural considerations include using labels that lack clarity, presenting a large number of items, and recruiting participants whose backgrounds are not closely related to the intended user segment. Attention to these variables may affect the uniformity in data that corresponds to participant sorting methods. Performing a brief pilot session beforehand can determine if instructions and card wording are clearly understood by participants.
How do you analyze card sorting results?
The process of analyzing card sorting results includes observing how participants group and label different pieces of content. It typically involves reviewing which cards appear together most frequently and documenting category names used by participants. Review of these patterns helps turn the gathered input into proposed categories for use in information architecture, while indicating where groupings are common or uncommon. Certain software applications often generate dendrograms and similarity matrices, which present the grouping data in a structured, visual layout.
How do you translate card sort findings into navigation design?
Card sort findings are incorporated into navigation design by referencing the groups and labels identified most often by participants to determine how main website categories are structured. Labels generated by participants can be adopted for menu items to reflect observed grouping behaviors. For example, if the groupings “My Profile,” “Settings,” and “Order History” are regularly assigned the label “Account,” this grouping may be selected as a primary navigation category.
Conclusão
Card sorting provides a structured approach for capturing how users categorize conteúdo do site and represent their mental models in navigation structures. Observing the ways participants group and name information provides input for developing a site’s information architecture. These observations can be used to allocate categories and labels that closely reflect identified grouping patterns on the site, which may affect the general experiência do usuário and content findability.
