card sorting af lars bo larsen, aau

Card-sorting

InfinIT hands-on Workshop 28/9 2011

-Lars Bo Larsen, Søren Færch, Signe Skelgaard

Infinit Hands-on Workshop

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Program• Intro til workshoppen og Card Sorting / Lars Bo▫Hvorfor card-sorting?▫Kort intro til metoden▫Program

• Intro til IP-telefon case / Søren• Intro til BrainsBusiness case / Signe• Pause:▫opdeling i teams på ca 3 personer

• Sortering – vi bytter case midtvejs• Pause•Opsummering af aflutning

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Hvorfor workshop om Card-sorting?•Oprindeligt et ønske fra InfinITs medlemmer at

der bliver afholdt ”Hands-on” aktiviteter om konkrete metoder til ”værktøjskassen”

•Card sorting er en metode, som er:▫nem (og hurtig) at lære og anvende▫nem for deltagerne at forstå▫billig▫giver gode resulater i forhold til ressourcerne▫en explorativ metode, der kan benyttes i den

indledende fase af et projekt

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Og hvad er Card Sorting så?

Det er præcist hvad navnet siger!▫Du beder et antal personer sortere nogle kort i

et antal bunker▫Det kan gøres individuelt eller i små teams▫Det kan gøres med fysiske kort eller på en

computer – lokalt eller på nettetLo-Tek metode – billig og hurtig at opstille, nem

at forklare og forstå▫Det tager typisk 25-30 minutter▫Det krævende er at definere indholdet og

analysere resultaterne

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Hvad får man ud af det?

•Det ene resultat er de kategorier, som deltagerne opdeler kortene i:▫Disse bruges til at få et indblik i hvordan

brugerene opfatter og grupperer funktioner og informationer i systemet (fx organisationen af et website eller en menu struktur)

▫Mao. giver card sorting et indblik i brugernes ”mentale model” over domænet

•Det andet meget vigtige resultat er selve processen, der leder frem til kategorierne▫Observeres under selve sorteringen

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Selve udførelsen

•Kort oversigt over hvilke skridt der indgår i planlægningen

•Vi gemmer analysen til efter I har prøvet de to cases

•Vi skifter til engelsk.

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The procedures follow:CARD SORTING -Designing Usable Categoriesby DONNA SPENCER• http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/

• En kort introduktion:• http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide

• Slide Illustrations are from the Card Sorting book▫ Availble from website (flickr)

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http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/

http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide




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Planning the card sort

1. Decide what you need to learn.2. Select the method

(open or closed, face- to face or remote, manual or software).

3. Choose content.4. Choose and invite participants.5. Run the card sort and record the data6. Analyse the outcomes

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2. Select the method: Open Sort

Open Card Sort (participants chooses the categories) We’ll do this!• By far most common• Need not be completely open – can specify sort criteria,

e.g:▫ Main audience groups▫ Main tasks they are likely to do▫ Steps or stages of a process

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Closed Sorts

Closed Card Sort (you choose the categories)• Collects less information (you dont get the

categories)▫ When the categories are fixed beforehand (e.g. extend

system)▫ Much easier to analyse

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Participants

•Number of participants▫It depends.... ▫Must be enough for consistent patterns to

emerge▫Less for explorative/qualitative, more if rely

on statistics or webbased tools▫Small teams or individual sorts?▫Maybe several user groups?▫15 has been suggested by some

researchers

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Small teams or Individual?

•Using small teams (3-4 persons) will allow you to observe the process leading to the grouping of the cards – arguments, difficulties, doubts, etc..▫Outcome might depend on group dynamics▫More time-consuming

•Doing individual sorts gives more data (one sort per participant)▫but gives less deep insights▫Well-suited for online card sorts

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Create the cards:

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Recommended number: 30-100 cards


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Running the sort

0. Do a Pilot.1. Introduce the activity.2. Hand out cards and materials.3. Participants sort the cards.4. Participants label the cards.5. Ask follow-up questions.6. Record the outcomes.

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Intro to the two cases:

• Ip-telephone▫Søren

•BrainsBusiness Website▫Signe

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Do the Sorts

•Switch cases after approx 30 minutes▫Remember: Cards may only go into one

group!

Break!

•Analyse results

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Analyse the results – debriefing participantsAsk the participants about e.g. :•Overall rationale for their grouping

approach•Best examples from each group/category• Is the team is happy with the overall

outcome•What were the easy and hard parts

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Analysing the results – exploratory analysis• What group/categories people form.• What classification schemes people use• What content is placed in each group.• Where individual cards are placed.• What words people use to

describe their groups.

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Quantitative Analysis

• Purpose:▫Perform in-depth detailed analysis▫To determine consistent (and inconsistent!) patterns▫To investigate differences between user groups▫To get statistical evidence

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Standardise the Group TermsThe participants will come up with a number of similar, but slightly different names for the groups.

These need to be standadised before the statistical analysis

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Spot PatternsLBL/Apr 10, 2023


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Statistical AnalysisPerform well-known statistcal analyses •K-means cluster analysis•Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA)•Multidimensional scaling (MDS)

Remember (as always):•Statistics tell you what, not necessarily why:▫Manage conditions/control variables▫Can spot patterns but usually not why they’re there▫Can find consistencies, but maybe inconsistencies

were more important

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MDS – Multi Dimenasional Scaling

• Dissimilarity Matrix▫ Contains the distances (usually Euclidian, usually metric

type) between cards▫ Symmetric aorund the diagonal – often only triangle view▫ Can be in more dimensions (hard to interpret visually

above 3)

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MD

S –

vis

ualis

ati

on

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The Results from our cases:

• Input to come

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Your comments, questions and opinions?

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Always combine methods!

Other methods used with card sorting:• Interviews 70%•Existing sources of user data, such as

website statistics, and search logs 66%•Usability tests 53%•Task analysis 46%•Surveys or questionnaires 42%•Focus groups 6%

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Summary•Careful preparation is (as always) the key to

success• Pay attention to the discussions, arguments, etc of

the participants• Team sorts provide richer material• Individual sorts provides more material and can be

run online•Nice tools available out there – many are free•Be careful not to be carried away by the statistical

analysis•Use card sorting as a supplement to other methods

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Tools and Ressources• Card Sorting book website (spreadsheet,

examples)• Optimalsort by Optimal workshop.com See demo• xSort (free download from Apple), for Mac OS X• Matlab, R, SPSS libraries• WebSort site

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http://www.optimalworkshop.com/optimalsort-results.htm

http://websort.net/

card sorting af lars bo larsen, aau

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