Testing and assessment

Method: Card sorts

What

A card sort asks users to group content into categories.

Why

Card sorts helps you understand how users expect the content to be organized.

How to do it

There are two types of card sorting: open and closed.

Open card sort

1. Give users a collection of content represented on cards.
2. Ask users to separate the cards into whatever categories make sense to them.
3. Ask users to label those categories.
4. Ask users to tell you why they grouped the cards and labeled the categories as they did.

Closed card sort

1. Give users a collection of content represented on cards.
2. Ask users to separate the cards into a list of categories you have predefined.
3. Ask users to tell you why they assigned cards to the categories they did.

Most teams run card sorts with one user at a time, but you can also do the exercise with groups of two to three people.

Time required

1 to 2 hours to set it up and then 15 to 30 minutes per user