[Sigia-l] card sorting

[Todd R.Warfel]

On Monday, June 2, 2003, at 07:48 PM, Boniface Lau wrote:

> Regarding your usages of the name "content inventory card sort" in
> this discussion, they have been inconsistent. Here are the various
> forms that you have used:
>
> * "content inventory (card) sort"
> * "(content inventory) card sort"
> * "content inventory card sort"

You're being nit-picky here, Boniface. I've used the term "content 
inventory" to clarify it for you. With or without the brackets, it's 
the same term. It's not nearly as difficult as you're making it out to 
be. Content inventory is a common term in IA. I've included it in my 
discussions to try and assist you.

> Despite your justification claiming that "card sorts are typically
> done on a content inventory", your own paper on card sort makes
> absolutely no mention of content inventory. That suggested that it is
> not that "typical" even by your very own experience.

Hardly. Many of us have asked about your experience, yet you have yet 
to reply. So, I've attempted to clarify card sorting for you by using 
the term "content inventory." This is very standard practice in IA - a 
content inventory. If you've done card sorts in the past to create a 
site map, then you're probably familiar with a content inventory. The 
paper doesn't mention the term "content inventory" in the context of 
card sorts, as it's implied. Card sorts on content inventories are 
common practice in IA.

> Your paper said:
>
> MO> Once the cards are shuffled, the participants are asked to sort the
> MO> items into like groups.
>
> But there is nothing about how the participants are supposed to "sort
> the items into like groups" - which is the focus of this discussion.

That's just it. It's not that complicated of an exercise. In the 
hundreds of times I've done card sorts, I've never once had to give a 
great deal of instruction beyond "your task is to sort the stack of 
cards into like groups, which make sense to you. Once you are satisfied 
with the group, you should give that group a label that would make 
sense to you."

It's really not as complicated as you're trying to make it out to be. 
We're not suppose to give explicit instructions - they don't need them. 
And we're specifically not suppose to instruct them to order them, as 
this is clearly not necessary.

So, once again, what is (has been) your experience?

Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel

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In theory, theory and practice are the same,
but in practice, they're not.