Wanna play some cards?

January 5, 2007 by Greg Schuessler.

It’s Friday and you’re looking forward to the weekend. Phone rings and you answer to hear ”Wanna play some cards?” by the person on the other end of the line. That’s right, wanna do some Card Sorting!? 

Card sorting is a way to involve users in grouping information for a Web site, as defined by Usability.gov.

The key here is really allowing the user to define how they organize content for a particular Website, while a Usability Specialist watches and takes note of the feedback.

Receiving information from a participant of a Card Sort can help you better define the architecture of your Website.

There are two types of Card Sorts:

• Open Card Sort = Participants organize cards into groups that make sense to them and then name each group.
• Closed Card Sort = Participants organize cards into pre-defined categories.

While both are valuable I believe it to be benefitial to implement both per Website design. Unless of course you absolutely sure what the categories should be named!

Learn more about Card Sorting by visiting the how card sort works section on usability.gov.

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