The powerful cards

Remember: card sorting is not a user interface design method, but a knowledge elicitation exercise to discover users' mental models. It has to make users work harder and really think about how they'd approach the concepts written on the cards.
- Card Sorting: Pushing Users Beyond Terminology Matches

Exploratory card sorting

• Purpose: to find out how your users classify the information in your domain.
• Steps of open card sorting:
  
  1. 30-100 cards (with a title and a short description).
  2. Ask around 15 users to sort the cards into groups.
  3. Users give each group a description of what makes the group a group.
  4. Analyse the data. The terms people use to describe the groups will become the proto-headings of the navigation structure.

A title of the function
A short description
x 30-100 cards

Users: sort the cards into groups

Users give each group a description

Tree test

• Purpose: to check if people can actually find stuff in your navigation structure.
• Steps:
  
  1. 10-20 task cards (with a short description of a likely goal/task that the web site supports)
  2. Prepare a set of group headings, derived from an open card sort.
  3. Write down the sub-groups on the back of each card.
  4. Ask users to pick the group card and then the sub-group card while given the task cards.

"Find an exercise bike"
x 10-20 cards

+

(front)
Sports & Leisure

(back)
Fitness

(back)
Camping & Hiking

(back)
Cycling

Users: pick the group card and then the sub-group card

Trigger word elicitation

• Purpose: to identify the words or phrases that will encourage users to click on links.
• Steps:
  
  1. 10-20 task cards (with a short description of a likely goal/task that the web site supports)
  2. Ask users the words or phrases they would expect to find on a web site that supported that task.

Web broad

• Purpose: to find out where users expect to find your functions.

Function familiarity test

• Purpose: to gauge how often people use functions within your application, or to measure levels of understanding.
• Steps:
  
  1. Cards contain a title of the function and a short description.
  2. Ask users to sort the cards into three piles: functions I use frequently; functions I use sometimes; and functions I rarely or never use.
  3. Give points and add up the scores derived from all participants to identify the most used functions in your interface.

A title of a function
A short description

sort the cards into three piles

Functions I use frequently
5 points

Functions I use sometimes
2 points

Functions I rarely or never use
0 points

Swap sort

• Purpose: to find out the most important functions, features or tasks within your interface. This information would help you know how to priortise content.
• Steps:
  
  1. Cards contain a title of the function, feature or task and a short description of it.
  2. Ask users to pick the 10 most important cards of them.
  3. Ask users to place the 10 card vertically and rank them in descending order of importance.
  4. Give points from 10 to 1 and add up the scores derived form all participants to identify the most important functions in your interface.

(Source: Card Games for Information Architects by David Travis)