Information Architecture. Card Sorting

INFORMATION
ARCHITECTURE.
CARD SORTING TECHNIQUE
Grau en Enginyeria Informàtica
User Centred Desig

Index
• Introduction: the value of organized knowledge
• Information design: Card Sorting
• The technique
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Tools
Information Architecture. Card Sorting - User Centred Design 2 / 42

The value of “organized knowledge”

Why Navigation Design Is So Crucial to
the User Experience?
• The most common problem users come across is –
unable to find the desired content or features in the
website or application.
• Poorly designed navigation systems leads to more
than 75% of usability problems.
• The most common user problems
• I am not able to find what I am looking for
• I am not able to get back to previous page
• Where to go next now?
• The link clicked earlier is disappeared
• While visiting any website or application the users should be able to
answer these questions?
• Where am I?
• Where can I go?
• How do I get there?
• How do I get back?
Good navigation is easy to
find, the navigation menu
should always stand out.

Information overload
(infobesity or infoxication)
• Difficulty for a person to have understanding and making
decisions caused by the presence of too much
information
• During last years a hug amount of information overloads
people.
• In general, this is beneficial,
• BUT, such amount of overload of information can have negative
effects.
• We cannot solve the amount of information, we can help users
facilitating the finding of this information.

Possible Causes
• Information
• Multiplicity: electronic news, email, databases, Web pages, stored
documents, social networks, ...
• Incompatible formats
• Unawareness, ignorance of new tools
• Altavista study: 80% couldn’t/wouldn’t build a working Boolean
search
• Altavista study: 87% used less than 3 words
• POOR Schemes and Information Architectures
• Users do not understand how information is structured
• That information is available does not mean it is "achievable"
• “Out of sight, out of mind” [D. Norman]

Information Architecture (IA)
• IA is about helping people understand their surroundings
and find what they're looking for —in the real world as well
as online.
• Definition
• The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets,
online communities and software to support usability and findability
http://www.iainstitute.org
http://www.iainstitute.org/documents/learn/What_is_IA.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/StasKremnev/lana-voynova-crash-
course-in-ux-design?next_slideshow=1

http://cmsresources.windowsphone.c
om/devcenter/en-
us/downloads/IA_sample.pdf

The trunk test (for testing a IA)
• What site is this? (Site ID)
• What page am I on? (Page name)
• What are the major sections of this site? (Sections)
• What are my options at this level? (Local navigation)
• Where am I in the scheme of things? (“You are here”
indicators)
• How can I search?

Top 3 IA Questions about Navigation
Menus
1. How Many Categories Should We Have?
• fundamental principle: the number of categories should be
determined by what makes it easiest for people to discover and
access information — not by some preordained decision that “we
should only have 4 categories”
2. Should Categories Be Listed in Alphabetical Order?
• 3 key factors to consider:
• Is there another organizing principle that would be more meaningful?
• Will visitors already know the exact category names?
• How many categories are there?
3. Should Hover-Activated Menus Be Eliminated Since
Touch Devices Don’t Allow Hovering?
by K. WHITENTON on January 4, 2015
http://goo.gl/dm4LFC

Some good references on IA
(also in the virtual campus)
• http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/00001
0.php
• http://prezi.com/aafmvya6bk7t/understanding-information-
architecture/
• http://www.slideshare.net/petervandijck/everything-i-know-
about-information-architecture-mostly-categorization-in-
90-minutes
• http://www.uxabilidad.com/experiencia-de-
usuario/arquitectura-de-la-informacion.html
• http://www.nngroup.com/articles/intranet-information-
architecture-ia
• http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2014/02/adopting-a-
professional-compass-for-information-architecture.php

CARD SORTING
Traditionally, User-Centered Design techniques are
used to develop the Information Architecture of
websites. The typical one is Card Sorting, where users
are given a set of cards labelled with the main topics of
the site and they group these cards following their
own criteria

What is Card Sorting?
• Technical knowledge acquisition based on a
constructivist approach that serves to:
• Understanding how users envision the organization of
information
• Explore how the concepts are grouped by people
• Understanding users' mental model
• provides concrete data that can be instantiated
• Moreover, is:
• Cheep, quick, involves users, democratic, …

Benefits
• Why sort?
• To better understand a problem and users’ view of it
• Source of concepts, terminology and organisation
• How is it done?
• Participants given objects, photos, cards or similar and are asked to
group them
• What are the results?
• Qualitative: concepts, terminology, understanding
• Quantitative: how frequently items are grouped together; how
groupings compare with a reference set
• What methods can be used?
• Face-to-face: ‘in-depth’ individuals sessions, pair sorting, with
observer, larger sessions with emphasis feedback
• Online: much larger sample sizes possible, using images or words
(little qualitative information though)

Card Sorting in UCD
• CS has wide application in UCD answering questions
such as:
• How do users think about this problem?
• What words do they use?
• Are menu items or form fields grouped the way users expect?
• Is there anything we’ve forgotten?
• Paper-based sorting in particular can be very helpful
• No technological barriers
• Participants can write comments on cards, change terms, create
new items or groups (good qualitative results)
• Cards can appear in more than one group

Method
1. Determine the list of topics (content)
2. Create cards
3. Selecting participants
4. Make the sorting sessions
5. Analyse the results

1. Determine the list of topics
• Each topic should be neither too generic or too
specific. It must represent a piece of content or
functionality that needs to be organized.
• The sample card to order should be "manageable"
• Avoid
• giving "clues" that lead users to organize topics in a (pre) defined.
• topics that include "grouping terms" (File, Edit, FAQs, ...)
• And, (perhaps) the most important
• The topics should be meaningful to the participants

Fruits
Grapes
Lemons
Apples
Vegetables
Oranges
Potatoes
Carrots
Tomatoes
Grapes
Fruits Vegetables
Lemons
Apples
Oranges
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Carrots

2. Create the cards
• Materials Needed
• Paper cards, cardboard, Post-it, ...
• A notebook for notes
• Pencil and rubber
• A large surface to spread the cards
• Each topic is written on a card
• On certain occasions it is necessary a small description
• Must be "readable"
• We must have empty cards
• users can need to create groups
• …

3. Select participants
• Aim to have participants representing all possible
potential users
• NOT your fellow designers, friends, relatives, …
• be sure that the participants are familiar with the vocabulary
of the cards
• 15 to 20 participants should be successful
• Perform separate card sorting sessions for different
groups

• Explain the process
• A written explanation ensures that
everyone has the same level of
understanding
• Types
• Open Card Sorting
• Sorting without pre-established groups
• Useful for new architectures
• Closed Card Sorting
• Predefined groups
• For existing architectures

• Practical recommendations for participants
• READ ALL labels before sorting
• Awareness of the range of items to sort
• Arrange the cards using a common approach and according
to its own principles
• Allow a “I’m not sure" group
• Explain only when needed (not at the beginning)
• In an open card sorting session participants should label the
groups in their own way

• The UX expert
• Watch and listen
• Do NOT GUIDE the participants
• Take note of anything that may be of
importance
• questioning
• comments
• Suggestions
• …
Sorting Nº 1
Date 20/09/13
User Maite
Criteria Flavour
Groups Sweet: 1,4,8
Bitter: 3,5
Salty: 6,7,2

http://uxpunk.com/websort http://www.conceptcodify.com http://www.userzoom.es/articles/o
nline-card-sorting-what-how-why
http://www.usabilitest.com/
CardSorting
http://www.usabilitest.com/CardSorting http://www.simplecardsort.com
https://sites.google.com/a/
uxsort.com/uxsort
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ca
rdsword
http://www.optimalworkshop.com

• CardSortingGRIHO.jar + Analitzador_Clusters(GRIHO).jar
• Based on: http://www.cardzort.com/cardzort/download.php
• CardSortingGRIHO.jar
• Manage cards: create, modify,
save, print cards
• Run individual card sorting
sessions
• Analitzador_Clusters(GRI
HO).jar
• Analyse the results
• Provide dendogram

RUN a
sorting
exercise
CardSortingGRIHO.jar

NAME of the user who
is doing the sorting

Step 1: sorting the cards

Step 2: giving names to the groups

Analitzador_Clusters(GRIHO).jar
• Cluster analysis with data obtained from
• Cluster Analysis
• Algorithms based on similarity measures
• Exploratory method that identifies homogeneous groups of objects
(clusters)
• Many choices on the nature of the algorithm for combining groups
(based on similarity)

How we measure the similarity between
two cards?
• Suppose we analyse the card sorting for a user u
• The distance between a pair of cards i and j is defined
as:
 du(i,j) = 0 when i and j are grouped
 du(i,j) = 1 otherwise
 du(i,j) = du(j,i)
• And for N users final distance
between i and j is defined as
N
jid
jiD
N
u
u
 1
),(
),(

Distances matrix
1 2 3 4 5
1 X
2 0 X
3 0 0 X
4 1 1 1 X
5 1 1 1 0 X
1 2 3 4 5
1 X
2 0 X
3 1 1 X
4 0 0 1 X
5 1 1 0 1 X
1 2 3 4 5
1 X
2 0 X
3 0 0 X
4 0 0 0 X
5 1 1 1 1 X
1 2 3 4 5
1 X
2 0 X
3 0.340.34 X
4 0.340.340.66 X
5 1.0 1.0 0.660.66 X
+
=
3
User 1 User 2 User 3
+
[1,2,3], [4,5] [1,2,4], [3,5] [1,2,3,4], [5]
2
4
3
5
1
Items 1 and 2 were
together in all exercises.
Items 1 and 5 did not
appear together in any
exercise

Obtaining the Clusters
1: One of the pairs with
minor distance is the
cluster
1 2 3 4 5
1 X
2 0 X
3 0.34 0.34 X
4 0.34 0.34 0.66 X
5 1.0 1.0 0.66 0.66 X
2: The cluster becomes a
single entity
(1,2) 3 4 5
(1,2) X
3 ? X
4 ? 0.66 X
5 ? 0.66 0.66 X
3: repeat this process: D[(1,2),3] = AVG{d(1,3), d(2,3)}

Analitzador_Clusters(GRIHO).jar
• Perform cluster analysis on data obtained with
• Visualization of the user preferences for labelling clusters
• The distance reflects the number of matches between
people who have done the exercise
• How many users have put a couple of cards together?
• A greater number of people who have joined a pair of cards shorter
the distance between them.

Managing card
sorting
exercises from
users
Card sorting
exercise
corresponding
to selected
participant

distance
Suggested
groups &
their labels
participants

Analitzador_Clusters(GRIHO).jarNombr
es de los grupos
• With the resutls the UX professional can:
• Decide the most appropriate Information Architecture
• Naming the groups
• … from users’ point of view (mental
model)!!

References
• Jakob Nelsen’s Web: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/card-
sorting-how-many-users-to-test
• The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction:
http://www.interaction-
design.org/encyclopedia/card_sorting.html
• Usability.gov:
http://www.usability.gov/methods/design_site/cardsort.html
• Blog “No Solo Usabilidad”:
http://www.nosolousabilidad.com/articulos/cardsorting.htm
• Kelly, G.A. (1955). The Psychology of Personal Constructs.
New York: W.W. Norton.
• Lamantia, J. (2003). Analyzing Card Sort Results with a
Spreadsheet Template. Boxes and Arrows.
• Maurer, D. (2003). Card-Based Classification Evaluation.
Boxes and Arrows.

Information Architecture. Card Sorting

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