Portfolio: METHODS

Card Sorts, User Research

Card Sorts, User Research

Card Sorts

A card sort is a categorization exercise, where people group together physical cards (using index cards) or virtual cards (using a online program like OptimalSort), based on their relationship to one another. Typically, you would use this method when you want to determine the information architecture of your website, or how your website will be organized.

I have done many card sorts. The first example is for the website of Liberty Mutual Insurance. The information architect and I came up with a “mashup” methodology, which involved bringing 26 people together in two, 2-hour sessions (13 people per session). We started out by asking participants to complete a virtual card sort online. We followed that up by breaking our participants into 3 teams, and asking them to work together to complete a physical card sort. We completed each session with a group discussion where we asked participants why they grouped the cards the way they did. The benefit of this method is that the individual card sort activity enriched the group card sort activity and group discussion. The new site navigation had a positive effect on the business, and web analytics demonstrated that customers were actively using the new navigation. In its report, J.D. Power and Associates stated that “Liberty Mutual provide[s] menus that allow [shoppers] to easily find relevant shopping tools on any page.”

The second example is for the intranet of Measured Progress, an educational testing and assessment company. The goal of the project was to unite separate sites, each created with separate software applications, so that employees of the company could easily find information. My qualitative interviews showed that employees would not use the site at all, but would rely on word of mouth to find they information they were looking for. The designer and I were able to architect a new intranet site based on the card sort – a site that employees did use.