[Sigia-l] Card sorting sorted

[Derek R]

Quoting from
http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/archives/000248.html :

	"I recently came to the conclusion that I don't like card
	 sorting as a technique for determining an information
	 structure. I'm only now starting to realise why."

	"I have noticed that participants don't really look
	 at the cards and try to form sensible groups
	 ...Instead, they try to get rid of most of the cards
	 as quickly as possible..."

 --

Hey! I think you might be using an Ethnomethodological approach here
Donna. In other words, you are not buying into the 'pre-arranged &
proclaimed' (ie. the deliverable-mentality which tells you card-sorts
work great) just because somebody told you to. Instead you are making
observations based on what really happens -- the ongoing accomplishment
of the actors involved -- meaning that people will do what they do when
they do it for their own reasons and are unlikely to correlate with your
'a priori' assumptions.

I would like to see you extend this discovery to taxonomy-creation, for
instance, and see what you can achieve.


>| "Card sorting on the surface"

It's all surface (ie. superficial) in a deliverable-kind-of-world.


http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Ethnomethodology
(ie. The study of "I've played your little game and followed your little
rules" -- "may I go home now?")


Be Well, Derek