November 15, 2013 Volume 9
Hello  

Today I am going to share with you one of my most favorite research techniques - online card sorting. I typically recommend this approach on projects where my client wants to improve the navigation of their product. Card sorting is a perfect fit for this objective because it gives you a picture of how your users organize their world as it relates to your product.

I hope you find this valuable and thanks for reading my newsletter.

Happy Friday!


Kay

*************************************
The joys of online card sorting
The concept of a card sort is very simple. You ask users to organize a list of words and phrases (or product features) into groups that make sense to them. The way they create their groups helps you to understand how they think about your product and how they use it.

You can do a card sort the old fashioned way, by asking participants to sort a stack of index cards, where each card contains one item. Typically you would use this manual approach in a face-to-face study. The benefit of the old fashioned approach is you can talk with the person as they are sorting to probe on the logic they are using to create their groups.

Because of logistics I most often do online card sorts, where the participant creates groups by dragging and dropping each item from a master list into different containers. The results of their card sort are stored online and we go over them during their session Online card sorting can be an excellent complement to usability testing. Two excellent tools for online card sorts are Web Sort and Optimal Sort.


This method offers a window into your user's world
Whether completed manually or online card sorting provides insight into how users think about your product as well as the language they use to describe it. It is a straightforward and data-driven approach for getting inside your user’s mind to see how they understand your product and the space around it. As I go from session to session patterns of organizational approaches emerge from participant to participant, and it's great to have both the data from the card sort backed up by conversations with users.

The card sort results are enhanced as more participants complete the exercise. I like to have at least 25 completed sorts, (though it is not necessary to interview everyone who did the sort). The online tools make it easy to analyze trends across participants. You can view responses from a single person as well as across selected people, and see statistics around which items were grouped together most often.

This technique is particularly useful for persona research because the results help identify distinct types of users who leverage the product in unique ways. You can use card sorting at any point in product development but typically it’s most helpful during the very early “formative” stages while you are learning about your target market.

Manual Card Sort
A manual card sort is done with index cards


Online card sort requires dragging and dropping



Here’s a mini case study that demonstrates the power
of this technique

A few years ago I used online card sorting to help a technology client improve the navigation of their product, which was used by multi-national companies to keep track of hardware and software within an enterprise. Through the online card sort/interview approach we identified 3 types of users: manager, tech support representative, and system administrator.

The manager used the product for making budget projections, the tech support rep for looking inside employee computers to fix a problem, and the system administrator to monitor overall system health. We used these insights to redesign the product so it had 3 navigation paths - each one was tailored to a specific persona. Click here to see the case study (case study #1).


Kay Corry Aubrey - Usability Consultant
Usability Resources Inc
, www.UsabilityResources.net

LinkedIn Profile, http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaycorryaubrey
Usability Resources Inc is SOWMBA/DBE certified

About Kay
Kay Corry Aubrey specializes in helping companies make their products more easily understandable to ordinary people through usability consulting, moderating, training, and team mentorship. Her expertise is in qualitative research, usability testing, and user interface design for traditional and mobile technology.  Since 2002 she has worked with organizations as diverse as Abt Associates, AT&T Mobility, iRobot, The Broad Institute, Columbia University Libraries, Constant Contact, NIH, Moxie Software, and the Mayo Clinic. She  teaches medical professionals about designing for usability within the Healthcare Informatics program at Northeastern University and is the editor in chief of the QRCA VIEWS magazine.

Please call us when you need objective expertise in how to make your products more successful. Our phone number is 781-275-3020 and e-mail Kay@UsabilityResources.net. We invite you to visit www.UsabilityResources.net for more information.

RECENT ARTICLES
7 Things you don't know about usability testing

"Take it inside" how to  develop an online user community within your organization

Aubrey_VIEWS
An overview of techniques for planning, running, and reporting on usability research
WEBINARS

American Marketing Association Webinar "How to do a mobile usability test"  July 15 2013

QRCA QCAST "What Qualitative Researchers Need to Know about Usabiity Testing"

TIDBIT ARCHIVE
Link to past newsletters
ACCESSIBILITY  LINKS

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) from the W3C

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1973 Section 508

Web accessibility toolbar for Firefox

Fangs screen reader emulator for Firefox

W3C's "WAI-ARIA" specifcation with tips on how to make RIA technology accessible

 
Usability Resources Inc
Contact Details 
Usability Resources Inc PO Box 84   Bedford, MA   Phone: (781) 275 3020
Kay@UsabilityResources.net    www.UsabilityResources.net