Have you ever been on a site where cryptic labels or jargon were used for the navigation options? Or have you ever resorted to entering a Google search instead of exploring a site because the content was scattered and not organized in a way that you found intuitive? It’s highly possible that these sites were designed with little consideration for the user and user input was not collected during the life cycle of the project. Spending time with users or performing user research was probably viewed as overhead or a “nice to have” rather than incorporated into the overall project budget. Often, user research is not viewed as mission-critical and instead is seen as a step standing in the way of getting the project completed on time.
Fortunately, there are ways to include user research without blowing your budget. A simple yet eye-opening approach to gather user input is card sorting. The beauty of the card sort is to see how representative users of your site would naturally organize content from your site.
There are two primary types of card sorts:
- Open card sort. Users are given a sample content list and asked to create groups as they see fit and label the groups they created. This is typically done for a new website project and conducted before the information architecture has been finalized.
- Closed card sort. Users are given a sample content list as well as predefined groups that they will need to use to group the content into. This may be done to validate assumptions made after an open card sort or to refine existing categories (e.g., top navigation options) during a website redesign.
Card sorting is flexible and easy to administer because it can be conducted in person or remotely. And all you need is either a set of index cards or an online card sorting tool. Index cards work well because users easily work with the cards by spreading them out in any manner they choose as they begin to assemble the groups. However, there are some online tools that are effective in emulating the experience you get with index cards:
- Optimal Sort is one of the most popular card sorting tools. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. And you can also benefit from some analysis reports that are automatically generated by this tool. Here is a video on how to create an Optimal Sort study: http://vimeo.com/14204460
- iCardSort is an iPad app that was created to replicate the feeling of physical cards.
While online card sorting tools can give you the flexibility to conduct the study without a moderator, it’s beneficial to have a moderator there to gain a deeper understanding of the user’s rationale and interpretation of the content. So as users organize content into what they deem are the logical groupings, they are asked to describe their thought process through a think-aloud protocol. This gives insight into their mental models and answers the following types of questions:
- What do users find easy to organize?
- What do users find difficult to organize?
- How do users describe the content or what do they name groups?
- How do people want information grouped – by subject, process or content type?
- Do they understand the content?
- What content would they organize into more than one group?
- Were there any patterns (e.g., similar content groupings or labels)? Or what were the areas of high disagreement across users?
With answers to the questions above, the team will be better equipped to design an experience that is positioned to meet the needs and expectations of your target users. Integrating user research approaches like card sorting can act as useful checkpoints, but, more importantly, provides the team with valuable insights that will make them better advocates for your customers and help create a positive experience for your brand. This is a technique that is best conducted early in the process – ideally before wireframes are created or before any development begins – when there is less risk to the project at large. With simple card sorting exercises, incorporating user research into the overall project shouldn’t be a daunting overtaking and is actually fairly easy to integrate.
More on Card Sorting
- Interview with card sorting guru: http://www.infodesign.com.au/uxpod/donnaspencer
- Definitive guide: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide
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