[Sigia-l] card sorting: dealing with multiple placements

[Todd R.Warfel]

On Monday, May 26, 2003, at 07:51 PM, Boniface Lau wrote:

> That is probably due to the card sort restriction imposed on users. If
> users were allowed to have duplicated placement, they probably would.

Well, users are allowed to have duplicates, and typically they just 
don't duplicate items. It does happen, but it's extremely rare.

> Card sort is really about ordering. Using an ordering tool for
> categoring implies non-overlapping categories. In situations where
> such assumption of non-overlap does not hold, card sort distorts the
> true picture by imposing an either/or mentality.

I have to disagree. Card sorting is not about ordering, it's about 
grouping - there is a difference. I don't mean to play semantics, but 
there is an important distinction in understanding what card sorts are, 
how they work, and what the desired result is.

Groups and families might be classified under orders, but orders would 
not be classified under groups or families. Orders are typically more 
hierarchical.

Card sorts do not impose an either/or mentality, when done correctly. 
They do, however, encourage users to :
- group content items into buckets that they feel belong together
- group content items into buckets where they would look for them if 
they were using a product
- group content items into buckets that make sense to them

Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel

_//message first [method second]
-=========================-
User Experience Architect
message first
[P] (607) 339-9640
[E] twarfel at messagefirst.com
[w] http://messagefirst.com
-=========================-

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