Card Sorting made easy (and affordable*)

What is Card Sorting?

Card sorting is a technique often used in usability testing and Information Architecture (IA). It involves participants using logic while sorting content or “cards” into categories or groups that make sense to them, given the information they are provided with. Very often this method is used in ux research for projects that help design teams to build or improve user interface (UI), information flow or user experience overall.

You’ve got options, when it comes to Card Sorting tools

Typically, when you first hear about research method only two test types are mentioned: Open and Closed. At usabiliTEST we developed the third one — Hybrid, which is a combination of the first two. So, let’s take a closer look at what this means, how these types of card sorting are different from each other, and which are the best digital card sorting tools for your business needs.

Open Card Sort

Participants sort index cards with some items written on them into logical groups. Once they create these groupings they label them. Please see demo button below for Open Card Sorting example.

Demo

Closed Card Sort

Participants are provided with a few category names and a set of cards. Then they place the index cards into these fixed categories. The two demo links below provide examples of closed card sorting, one of which uses only text cards and the other images.

Demo Demo with images

Hybrid Card Sort

This is a combination of both Closed and Open Card Sorts. Test starts as a Closed Sort, where you provide predefined categories, however if participants do not find an appropriate category among those they were given, they can create and name their own and place their cards there.

Demo

Get it done in 3 simple steps

Please note that card sorting exercises can be conducted in person or remotely. There are benefits to both approaches however, since usabiliTEST's Card Sorting software is web-based, this article is written with remote tools in mind.

1. Create Test

   It only takes a few minutes to create your own usability test. There's lots of flexibility in the setup process. So you can create either simple or complex tests — it all depends on your project's needs.

2. Invite Participants

   Just because you built a test doesn't mean they will come. Furthermore, your test is worthless without real users and while the number of participants is often depends on your specific needs, it is said that a gorup of some 30 participants is good enough to be able to overcome individual mental model bias. While you can tweet or email your test page's link, how do you know if they participated in your test? How do you know if they even opened your email containing the test?

   usabiliTEST has tools to assist you with all of this. Simply add your contacts into your address book and fire up the desired emails with a single click. Afterwards, sit back, relax, and let our system keeps track of your test responses for you. As for those slow responses, we'll follow-up with a gentle reminder.

   Example

   If your target audience is your office, you won't have to bother your colleagues about whether they have taken your test. You will already know if they have.
3. Get Results

   Analyzing data is where the fun begins. This could also be the longest part of any project. Imagine spending a lengthy amount of time tabulating all your numbers, when suddenly come late submissions…

   There's no need to worry about this scenario when you use usabiliTEST built-in result data analytic tools. All computations are done immediately and in real time. With just a click of a button, you can transform your raw numbers into percentages. These percentages can either be plotted on a graph or grouped into logical groupings. If you prefer to use other third-party statistical software, you can easily export all your data.

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Test Data

usabiliTEST includes data analysis tools that allow you to manipulate your test data on the fly:

• Display raw numbers
• Convert to percentages
• Group percentages
• Create a distance matrix
• Plot multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis of the distance matrix
• Create an interactive dendrogram, which represents Hierarchical Cluster Analysis

The list above may sound like a bunch of fancy terms, so the best way to learn about these tools is with our no obligation trial. Give a free online card sorting test a good whirl and see all the features in action.