Posted in Website Usability Testing	August 22, 2006

By Kim Mateus , Managing Editor Mequoda Daily and Library

Perhaps you're confident of the words you must use on your website but not how they should be organized. Our usability expert, Roxanne O'Connell, likes to make that a job for a Card Sort Test. This test is especially helpful if you have a lot of categories or sections and you want to know how users expect to see those organized.

As the name implies, a Card Sort requires the test participant to sort cards, each with a word or statement printed on it, according to the user's mental model of the relationships between the words or statements. The test facilitator then records the sort in a spreadsheet.

An analysis of the results from several test participants gives designers an excellent view into what is important to the user and how they refer to it in their own language.

Depending on what kind of information you are trying to elicit, Card Sorts can be conducted with individuals or groups. In either case it's important to leave some blank cards available, as users might want to use words you have not provided. Here are a few links to specific instructions on conducting a Card Sort:

"Card Sorting" in Usability Net, retrieved May 24, 2005.

Lamantia, J. (2003). "Analyzing Card Sort Results with a Spreadsheet Template" in Boxes and Arrows, retrieved May 24, 2005.

Maurer, D. and Warfel, T. (2004) "Card sorting: a definitive guide" in Boxes and Arrows, retrieved May 24,2005.

Nielsen, J. (2004). "Card Sorting: How Many Users to Test" in Alert Box, retrieved May 24, 2005.

Websort: A web-based card sorting tool.

"What is card sorting?" in Information & Design, retrieved on May 24, 2005.

For more on website design and usability techniques, please join us in Boston in September for the third annual Mequoda Summit 2006.

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