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

[Chad Fennell]

> >Hi guys
> >
> >I'm very excited to let you know that, between now and the end of the year,
> >I will be
> >writing a book on card sorting. Specifically, it will be about how to use
> >card sorting in
> >information architecture and similar projects. I think it will fill an
> >important gap – there
> >is some material about how to run a card sort, but little on how to
> >actually use the
> >outputs.
>
> I have never been sold on card sorting. I work on medium size sites - banks,
> energy providers, that kind of thing. You are right that there is little on
> how to use the output of card sorting, and those who use card sorting havnt
> really explained to me how it fits with the work I do.
>
> I have seen it claimed it can organise top level navigation.
>
> Open card sorting is like user designed buildings - it's interesting to see
> how they think but the results are often tell you little about how to
> structure the site.  It's also a backwards way of looking at things, in my
> view. that is starting with content then trying to grow out a task. To my
> mind it should start with a task and deterimine what content is needed and
> how it is expected to be found.
>
> I have a method that uses cards but is based upon flow. The user can explain
> some tasks, this is broken into stages and what content is expected is added
> along with the flow.
>
> Closed card sorting is like a poor mans prototyping from what I've seen, it
> strips out much of the vital context and, in my view, should be avoided as a
> validation process.
>
> But, the question remains, why do so many people use it. I suspect I might
> be missing something and that card sorting is of use but I've missed that
> use. I'm looking to be convinced but currently card sorting is filed in away
> with user profiles and eye tracking in the list of things others appear to
> do that I can't see how it can feed into the process of creating a new site
> or improving an existing one.
>
> Donna, you are writing a book on the subject so must be sold on the idea,
> could you try and make me a convert? How can the outputs be used directly or
> is that not the idea of card sorting?
>
> Good luck with the book. I will probably buy it to try and disprove my
> personal theory.
>
> Stewart Dean
>
>

I haven't personally used card sorting extensively and I don't do
usability/IA/design work full time either, so take this into
consideration with regards to the comments that follow.

Card sorting, in my mind, provides a more highly targeted solution to
naming and grouping conventions than prototyping and subsequent
usability testing.  When testing a prototype, I have seen naming and
grouping issues arise that could have been more easily addressed with
a round or two of card sorting.  Because card sorting focuses more
upon naming and grouping, it strikes me as providing more of an
opportunity to aggregate a greater number of user preferences early on
in the design cycle.

I suppose that this kind of focus might exclude other important design
considerations that would come up in a prototype, but it still strikes
me as a useful exercise to get the basic taxonomy straight before
jumping into surface level design considerations.  I'm especially
attracted to it as a low-cost form of early inquiry.