An introduction to open card sorting and tree testing with a case study from Grace's kitchen/pantries. Sponsored by Optimal Workshop as part of #owroadshow in Los Angeles, hosted at Philosophie. This was presented on Thursday, June 15, 2017 by Chris Chandler and Grace Lau **Follow along with the digital card sort** Kitchen card sort: http://bit.ly/owla-sort Results from the kitchen card sort: http://bit.ly/owla-sort-results Note: The workshop focused on a manual card sort. Data was not saved back to the OptimalSort tool. **Tree test:** Kitchen tree test: http://bit.ly/owla-tree Results from Kitchen tree test: http://bit.ly/owla-tree-results Sitemap that was used for this tree test: http://bit.ly/owla-tree-mindmap

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Taxonomy of
Spices and Pantries
An Intro to Card sorting and Tree testing
Optimal Workshop Roadshow Los Angeles
June 15, 2017
Chris Chandler
Grace Lau

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Agenda
● 7:00 Welcome & Introductions
● 7:15 Card sorting basics
● 7:20 Exercise: Cardsorting in groups
● 7:30 Discussion
● 7:45 Case Study
● 8:00 Tree testing basics
● 8:15 Exercise: Tree testing via phone
● 8:30 Discuss real-time results
● 8:45 Adjourn

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Card Sorting
Optimal Sort

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Card Sorting
Card sorting is a design research
method for increasing a system’s
findability. The process involves
sorting a series of cards, each
labeled with a piece of content or
functionality, into groups that
make sense to users or
participants.
Activities & Deliverables
● Users sort the cards into
categories that we provide, or
they create categories that may
be more meaningful to them
● A Cluster Analysis is performed
to help determine groups and
confirm categories

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Website
structure
Mental
models

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How do we make sure
that different people
find what they’re
looking for?

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There are different ways
to sort content...

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Take 15 minutes!
In groups:
● Get into groups of 2-3
● Group cards and label categories
Online:
● http://bit.ly/owla-sort

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Discuss!

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Case Study of
Grace’s Kitchen

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Kitchens = Websites
● Consider space, workflow,
platforms, roles and
responsibilities
● Lots of content
● Concepts with descriptive
properties
● Physical space vs digital
content

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Color
Size
Region
Culture
Texture
Aroma Function
Composition
Shape
Origin
Taste

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Card Sorting
discovery • open/hybrid
How to prepare for a typical
card sort
1. Select content/inventory
○ Current content areas
○ Planned/future content
○ Representative content
2. Recruit participants
3. Prepare cards
Tip: Labels and descriptions
should be short enough to read
and understand

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Overall Test Results

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Cards with Least Categories: Curry, ginger, sugar

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Cards with Most Categories: Pepper oil

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Categories: Over 288 suggested categories!

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Similarity Matrix

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Dendograms

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Open sort / Tree Test (what is your goal?)
Discover
Validate

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Tree Testing
Treejack

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Tree testing is a usability
technique for evaluating the
findability of topics. The process
involves testing an expandable tree
structure without the influence of
visual design and navigation aids.
Tree Testing
Activities & Deliverables
● Validate navigation schemas,
structured frameworks for
facilitating navigation
● Conduct competitive analysis to
understand what navigation
schemas work or don’t work
among competitors
● Set benchmarking measures to
establish KPIs against
competitor metrics

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How to prepare for a tree test
1. Select user tasks
2. Prepare sitemap
3. Recruit participants
4. Analyze results
5. Revise sitemap and retest
Tip: Concentrate on common and
critical user tasks to simulate
what it’s really like to look for
something.
Tree Testing
validation • closed

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Take 10 minutes!
http://bit.ly/owla-tree

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Analyzing Treejack results
Other criteria:
● By user group
● By branches
Task success rate
High- and low-success tasks
First clicks
Directness
Task speed
Skipped tasks
Confidence
Outliers
Evil attractors

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http://bit.ly/owla-tree-mindmap

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Discuss!
http://bit.ly/owla-tree-results

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References
● Tree Testing for Websites. https://treetesting.atlassian.net/wiki/
● Donna Spencer. “Card Sorting: A Definitive Guide”
http://boxesandarrows.com/card-sorting-a-definitive-guide/
● Donna Spencer. Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/card-sorting/

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Contact
Chris Chandler
@chrischandler
Grace Lau
@lauggh