Card sorting is a great way to see how others would organize your site. It also helps you identify those essential items that should be on the home page.

Using the cards participators in this can help you by either identify category names, or if you already have defined the category names, group additional informaiton into those categories. When you have the main categories defined have the participant group the remaining cards, the topic or sub-category cards, on to the main category cards.

When the participant groups the card, you can do several things to help analyize, and understand the grouping. While they are sorting, have them talk to you, and tell you their reasoning for each item. Also, let them add new cards if they have an idea, or think of a better one. Another method that can help a lot, is after they have sorted them all, have them rank them in order of priority. Have them rank the main categories, and then have them rank the cards grouped within the categories. A simple 1-5 score is fine.

When the participant is done, don’t forget to track the data! Many tests are conducted by video, or voice recording, but simply writing down notes, and the final outcome is fine.

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