[Sigia-l] RE: Card sort result reports?

[Patrick Grizzard]

Amy,

To whom are you presenting the results of your card sort? Generally, when I have done card sorts, the results are considered an artifact, not a deliverable. In other words, the results of a card sort may be one input that goes into a research summary, or a user experience brief, outlining the strategy we intend to follow. They are also used in the creation of a navigation taxonomy (again, the taxonomy itself is the deliverable, the card sort results are one of the inputs used to creatte it). 

In my experience, card sorts are rarely a silver bullet that neatly categorize all of your content. Rather, they present possible solutions. Invariably, you end up having to massage these results until you come up with categories that make sense to as many users as possible, while meeting certain business goals/reqs, then you validate with users and tweak. Presenting the 'raw' results of card sorting or even cluster analysis seems unlikely to be very enlightening to the client, and may possibly be confusing. 

If they are eager to see the categorical breakdown of content, you might consider presenting your initial take on a navigation taxonomy, once you have synthesized the results of your card sort with other research. But, since it sounds like this is something you have already committed to and time is of the essence, you might consider just presenting the results in a spreadsheet, with an introductory page describing the process, the number of participants and any relevant info about them, etc., stressing the fact that what they are seeing is one aspect of research from which will be derived more concrete deliverables. HTH,

:Patrick 



-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Silvers <asilvers at vml.com>
Sent: Jun 6, 2005 10:46 AM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] RE: Card sort result reports?

Just to clarify my earlier request, I'm not actually looking for
information on how to conduct a card sort or how to analyze the
results--I'm interested in actual published reports on card sort
results. We've done lots of card sorts, and I know there are many
excellent resources available on how to do them, most of which I'm
familiar with. We're just looking for a quick way to present results on
a very short-notice sort. It's looking like we're going to have to
figure it out on our own, though, which is fine. 

Thanks to those who offered suggestions.

Amy Silvers
Experience Architect
VML
asilvers at vml.com

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