[Sigia-l] My card sorting book is underway!

[Todd Warfel]

Donna and I authored the definitive guide article. While we have some  
subtle differences of opinion on card sorting, we do share a common  
perspective that:
a) It's just a tool.
b) Like any other tool it has it's strengths and weaknesses. Know  
them well.
c) It's not a silver bullet, but a guide.

And if I recall, we're both fans of using the results against tasks.  
So, it's not enough to just do the sorting, but then use those  
results as a guide and test those results against user/customer/ 
consumer tasks.

One of the biggest benefits to card sorting is pattern recognition.  
It is a great, cheap, easy and reliable tool to reveal user patterns  
for how they would group things.

I would argue that user designed buildings might not be so bad, at  
least to the extent that it parallels card sorting. Why shouldn't we  
listen to users of a building as to where they would put light  
switches, exits, the cafeteria, restrooms? That's not to say they do  
the wiring, but identifying where they would expect to find the light  
switch, well, that would improve a lot of buildings I've been in.

On Apr 25, 2006, at 10:14 AM, Jonathan Baker-Bates wrote:

> It's just a tool like every other tool or technique we care to  
> mention. Rely
> on any one tool beyond its natural ability to be useful and you're  
> stuffed.
>
> The largest open card sort I've ever done was to get some insight  
> into how
> Vodafone should group their embedded phone client's handset  
> functions on the
> default icon grid. The analysis (as much qualitative as  
> quantitative) led to
> some pretty good design directions. We *may* have been able to get  
> there
> without the help of a card sort, but I doubt we would have had our
> conclusions taken as seriously without the backup the card sort  
> provided.
>
> I don't see how a task-driven flow would have helped with this  
> much. The
> task is to configure Bluetooth settings on your phone - where do  
> you go to
> do that?

Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel
Partner, Design & Usability Specialist
Messagefirst | designing and usability consulting
--------------------------------------
Contact Info
Voice:    (607) 339-9640
Email:    todd at messagefirst.com
AIM:       twarfel at mac.com
Blog:      http://toddwarfel.com
--------------------------------------
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.