Card sorting
Why?
Find out what information organisation structures are considered intuitive by users.
How?
Make labels for the main bits of information on your website. Invite users to the workplace and have them organise the labels in a way they find appropriate and have them explain why. Make sure you understand the underlying reasons for their choice.
Ingrediënts
- A small group of representative users.
- Cards with information that appears on your website.
- Video or photo equipment to record the results.
- A willingness to remind users to think out loud or to ask many questions about the reasons users have for a certain structure.
In practice
Card sorting is used regularly to decide on the information architecture of big websites or apps.
- There is a chapter on card sorting in Universal methods of design (Martin & Hannington , 2012). In the Dutch version: chapter 10, p26-27
- There is a book on Card Sorting. Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories. (Donna Spencer 2009)