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Card Sorting

Learn what Card Sorting is, a fundamental UX research technique for designing an intuitive Information Architecture by understanding how your users group and categorize content.

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Card Sorting is a user research (UX) technique that helps discover how people understand and group information. In a Card Sorting session, participants are asked to organize a series of cards, each with a concept or topic, into groups that make sense to them, and then label those groups.

What Is Card Sorting?

Imagine you give a friend a deck of 50 cards, each with the name of an animal. You ask them to sort them into piles that make sense to them. One person might create groups like “Pets,” “Jungle Animals,” and “Sea Animals.” Another might create groups like “Mammals,” “Reptiles,” and “Birds.” Neither is wrong; they simply reflect different mental models.

Card Sorting is exactly that, but with the content of your website or application. It is the fundamental technique for designing an [[Information Architecture]] that makes sense to your users, not just to you.

Why Is It Important?

  • Reveals your users’ mental model: It helps you understand how your users expect information to be organized.
  • Defines the navigation structure: It is the best way to get data for deciding what goes in your main menu, your footer, or your submenus.
  • Defines labeling: In open Card Sorting, the names users give to their groups are a goldmine for knowing how to label your categories.
  • It is cheap and fast: It can be done with sticky notes and a marker, or with simple online tools.

Types of Card Sorting

There are three main variants:

  1. Open Card Sorting:

    • Participants group the cards into categories that they themselves define and name.
    • When to use it: At the beginning of the design process, when you are exploring how to structure your content from scratch.

  2. Closed Card Sorting:

    • Participants group the cards into a set of categories that you have predefined.
    • When to use it: When you already have a defined category structure and want to validate whether users know where to place elements within it.

  3. Hybrid Card Sorting:

    • It is a mix of both. You provide predefined categories, but also give participants the option to create their own if they feel none of the existing ones fit.

How Is It Done?

  1. Prepare the cards: Make a list of the 30-60 most important concepts on your site or app. Write each one on a separate card.
  2. Recruit participants: Find 15 to 20 participants who represent your target audience.
  3. Give clear instructions: Explain the task to the participant. Emphasize that there are no right or wrong answers.
  4. Observe and take notes: While the participant groups the cards, note their comments and doubts. Ask them to “think aloud.”
  5. Analyze the results: Use a similarity matrix or other analysis tools to identify which cards were grouped together most frequently. Look for patterns and trends.

Mentor Tips

  • Do not use more than 60 cards: More than that and the task becomes too long and exhausting for the participant.
  • Choose the right type for your goal: If you are designing a new website, do an open Card Sort. If you are redesigning an existing menu, a closed Card Sort is probably more useful.
  • Do not interfere: Resist the temptation to help the participant if they have doubts. The goal is to understand their confusion.
  • Analysis is key: The raw data from a Card Sort can be overwhelming. Dedicate time to analyzing it correctly to extract the most valuable insights.

Resources and Tools

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ux technique research mid-level