1. Card-Sorting Basics

2. First Rule of UCD
Thou are not thy USER!

3. What is card-sorting?
 Card sorting is a common technique within user-
centred design (UCD) methodologies.
 All too often information on websites is organized
according to stakeholder perceptions. As User
Experience professionals, our role is to bring focus
back onto the perceptions and desires of the users to
provide an optimal balance between the two. Card
sorting is an established technique often used to help
structure, organize, and generally improve the
“findability of content or functionality” on a website,
(Rubin and Chisnell, 2008, p. 18).

4. Before recently, we made design
decisions based on just two things: what we
thought was awesome and what the client
wanted to see.
There was no science behind what we
did. We did it because the results looked
good, because they were creative (so we
thought) and because that was what our
clients wanted.

6. What is UCD?

7. User Centered Design
 UCD is a methodology
 Usability is an outcome of UCD practices
 This standard (ISO 13407: Human-centered design
process) defines a general process for including
human-centered activities throughout a development
life-cycle, but does not specify exact methods.

8. UCD seeks to answer questions such as:
 Who are the users of this 'thing'?
 What are the users‟ tasks and goals?
 What are the users‟ experience levels with this
thing, and things like it?
 What functions do the users need from this thing?
 What information might the users need, and in
what form do they need it?
 How do users think this 'thing' should work?
 How can the design of this „thing‟ facilitate users'
cognitive processes?

9. What is Information
Architecture?

10. The term was largely dormant until in 1996 it was seized upon by a
couple of library scientists, Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. They
used the term to define the work they were doing structuring large-
scale websites and intranets.
In Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing
Large-Scale Web Sites they define information architecture as:
 The combination of organization, labeling, and navigation
schemes within an information system.
 The structural design of an information space to facilitate task
completion and intuitive access to content.
 The art and science of structuring and classifying web sites and
intranets to help people find and manage information.
 An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on
bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital
landscape.

11. Let‟s get started

12.  Can use post-it notes
 3x5 cards
 Any type of paper really
 Pens

13.  There are two primary methods for performing card sorts.

Open Card Sorting: Participants are given cards showing site
content with no pre-established groupings. They are asked to sort
cards into groups that they feel are appropriate and then describe
each group. Open card sorting is useful as input to information
structures in new or existing sites and products.
 Closed Card Sorting: Participants are given cards showing site
content with an established initial set of primary groups.
Participants are asked to place cards into these pre-established
primary groups. Closed card sorting is useful when adding new
content to an existing structure, or for gaining additional feedback
after an open card sort.

14. Website Links
 http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/card_sortin
g_a_definitive_guide
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/beyond_car
dsorting_free_listing_methods_to_explore_user_c
ategorizations

15. Sites Info Taken From:
 http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/0
5/what-is-user-experience-design-overview-tools-
and-resources/
 http://whitneyhess.com/blog/2011/04/23/youre-
not-a-user-experience-designer-if/
 http://www.masternewmedia.org/how-to-use-
personas-in-user-experience-design-and-
development-research/
 http://www.peterme.com/archives/00000346.html
 These slides were created for educational purpose and not commercial.