Card Sorting Help people find what they’re looking for WORLD INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE DAY 2014

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Mental Model

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Mental models are deeply held internal images

of how the world works, images that limit us to

familiar ways of thinking and acting. Very often,

we are not consciously aware of our mental

models or the effects they have on our behavior

Peter Senge AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Acting As Mental Model

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Problem!

Are these people

finding what they

came for?

Yes or No

How do we know?

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Card Sorting

o A card sort is a user-centered

design method for increasing a

system’s find ability.

o The process involves sorting a

series of cards, each labeled

with a piece of content or

functionality, into groups that

make sense to users or

participants.

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

With card sorting you can

• Build the structure for your website

• Build the structure for your navigation

• Decide what to put on the pages

• Label categories and navigation

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

When should we do it

Card sorting is a user-centered, formative

technique. It should be used as an input to:

o designing a new site

o designing a new area of a site

o redesigning a site

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

I’m pretty sure I know how to sort

things in a way that will make scene

to our site Visitor

No! you probably don’t

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

There are different ways to sort

information And the best way may not be you were thinking

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Fruits?

Banana

Pineapple

Tomato

Broccoli

Carrots

Bell pepper

Apple

Peach

Vegetables ?

Avocado

Rhubarb

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

How Can We Do It?

i. Decide what you want to learn

ii. Select the type of Card Sort (open vs. closed)

iii. Choose Suitable Content

iv. Choose and invite participants

v. Conduct the sort (online or in-person)

vi. Analyze Results

vii. Integrate results

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

What are you wanting to learn?

o How do our users expect the information

to be organized and categorized?

o What terminology and labels do they find

confusing and what better terms can we

use?

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

How Can We Do It?

i. Decide what you want to learn

ii. Select the type of Card Sort (open vs. closed)

iii. Choose Suitable Content

iv. Choose and invite participants

v. Conduct the sort (online or in-person)

vi. Analyze Results

vii. Integrate results

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Open Card Sorting / Close Card Sorting

Discover In an open card sort, participants create their own names for the categories.

What is your Goal?

Validation In a closed card sort, participants are provided with a predetermined set of category names.

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

CHOOSE

METHOD

o Moderate

o Un moderate

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

How Can We Do It?

i. Decide what you want to learn

ii. Select the type of Card Sort (open vs. closed)

iii. Choose Suitable Content

iv. Choose and invite participants

v. Conduct the sort (online or in-person)

vi. Analyze Results

vii. Integrate results

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

It depends But:

you do an audit of the key content

that will be on your site

you create a card for each section

you present the stack of cards to a

participant and ask them to sort

them into groups that are

meaningful to them.

SELECTING CONTENT Cards come from where?

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

How Can We Do It?

i. Decide what you want to learn

ii. Select the type of Card Sort (open vs. closed)

iii. Choose Suitable Content

iv. Choose and invite participants

v. Conduct the sort (online or in-person)

vi. Analyze Results

vii. Integrate results

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

o Who are your target audience?

o How can you find them – Email? Social network? Or …

o Do they need to gifts for involvement?

Invite Participants

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Sample of invitation

o Dear <Name of customer contact>,

o Session Description : <Name of company> is continually focusing

on user experience to ensure that …

o What: This user experience research session will focus on how an

end-user would organize the navigation components on <Product

Name> …

o Who: who should be participant in this session & their involvement

gift is ….

o When: The session will take approximately 1.5 hours during

December 4-19 (during one of the days)…

o Where

o How: Short explain about session

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

How Can We Do It?

i. Decide what you want to learn

ii. Select the type of Card Sort (open vs. closed)

iii. Choose Suitable Content

iv. Choose and invite participants

v. Conduct the sort (online or in-person)

vi. Analyze Results

vii. Integrate results

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Online Card Sorting / Offline Card Sorting

More Participants Less cements Un Moderated

Less Participants More cements Can be Moderated

What is your Goal?

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Lead the face-to-face session

Why questions

•Ask them, Why do they think this or that?

Explain session clearly

•There is no right or wrong answers, we just want to know what you think

Minimize interruption

•Encourage the participants to think loud

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

How Can We Do It?

i. Decide what you want to learn

ii. Select the type of Card Sort (open vs. closed)

iii. Choose Suitable Content

iv. Choose and invite participants

v. Conduct the sort (online or in-person)

vi. Analyze Results

vii. Integrate results

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Analyzing

o Prepare your data for analysis ( you can find more Box and

arrow’s version | Rosenfeld media’s version)

o Analyze qualitative information based on user

comments.

o Analyze quantitative information

o Pull together your findings in a report to share with your

team and stakeholders.

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Look at

o Open Card Sorting:

- What groups were created

- Where the cards were placed

- What terms were used for labels

o Close Card Sorting:

- Users understand the categories & can find information

- Content fits well in categories with not too much overlap

- Category names match users mental models

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Correlation

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Similarity Matrix

Each card is compared to each other card. The higher the number, the

more similar the cards and displays the percentage that any one card

was grouped with another card.

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Want to learn more?

• Interactiondesign.org

• Usability.gov

• Box and Arrows

• Nielsen Norman Group

• Optimal workshop

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014

Thank You For Your Attention

Any Question?

ASMA KAROOBI

WIAD 2014 – IRAN

ir.linkedin.com/in/asmakaroobi

AsmaKaroobi-WIAD2014