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

[donna at maadmob.net]

On 23 May 2003 at 23:55, Todd R.Warfel wrote:

> Typically, they won't. I've done hundreds of card sorts over the past 8 
> years and can count on one hand the number of times when a group has 
> put the same item into two categories.
> 

That's interesting...

I've done lots of card sorts (not hundreds) and I suggest people put 
things into mulitple places if they feel strongly that they can't choose 
just one place - I even give them spare cards to let them do so.

I think this is OK - I want to see how people think about the 
information and what they think goes together. If they feel that there 
are things that *really* belong in two places, that's great. I don't try to 
force them into just one decision.

In the end, I'm looking for some type of pattern amongst the 
participants' answers to gain an insight into underlying patterns in 
content. I'm not looking for the definitive result from the card sort.

Hmmm...can you tell I've been thinking about this a bit. I've been 
thinking for a while into doing some research into card-sorting 
practices, but time and over-commitment to other things always 
defeats me.

Donna