Card Sorting

Researchers use card sorting to explore a website’s information architecture, category labels and navigation assumptions. In open card sorting, participants create and name their own groups; in closed sorting, they assign cards to predefined groups. A hybrid method can combine both approaches. The results reveal patterns in people’s mental models rather than a single objectively correct menu hierarchy.

For a business website with numerous services, the team might ask prospective customers to sort cards titled “Emergency Repairs,” “Routine Maintenance,” “Pricing” and “Service Areas.” Participants who group by urgency may expect different navigation from those who group by property type. The researcher compares these patterns, checks ambiguous labels and then tests a proposed navigation using a tree test or usability sessions.

Card titles must be understandable and sufficiently neutral; similar keywords can cause superficial matching that hides the underlying concepts. Card sorting is not the same as asking which homepage design looks better. The sample, recruiting and method influence the findings, and a small convenience group should not be presented as proof that every user thinks the same way.