- I still remember the first time I observed a card sort.
I stood by enraptured, watching users group little cards
with items found in a grocery store,
bread, shampoo, pet food, crackers,
into these little piles.
Some users made groups that were just what I would've done
while others created categories
that were delightfully surprising to me.
It blew my mind this simple technique
for uncovering how target users think
about an information space.
And I was hooked.
That first time was a traditional paper-based card sort.
But what if you can't do a card sort in person?
What if you need to do a card sort remotely?
Well, you can, and it really isn't terribly different.
The basic formula is the same
as with traditional paper sorting.
You, the researcher, choose a set of topics.
These are 40 to 60 items
that represent the main content on the site
and that are all roughly on equal hierarchical levels.
So, broccoli and carrots, not broccoli and vegetables.
You make sure you vary the terms and the order on the cards
to prevent users from keyword matching.
So, instead of "party invitations,"
"party favors" and "party decorations,"
you might try "invitations," "party favors" and "decorations."
Choose your card sorting software.
Instead of putting those topics onto paper cards,
you're going to load them onto digital cards,
using the tool that you've chosen.
So, there's two main options,
a specialized card sorting tool,
which is designed specifically for this purpose,
or a DIY, do-it-yourself approach.
Specialized tools are the most common
and also the easiest to set up and to use for analysis.
They involve a drag-and-drop interface
where users will move cards from one column
into a work area where they can then group the cards
and eventually, create labels.
Now, the real place that these tools shine
is in their analysis capabilities,
which show data in the form of similarity matrices,
which percentage of participants
grouped any two cards together.
They also show dendrograms,
which help you see popular groups of cards.
These tools have a big advantage
because the calculations and summaries are available
immediately after you've finished collecting your data,
unlike with paper cards where you have to manually enter in
all of those card sorting results.
The second option is your DIY approach.
Now, this is a good fallback,
if you absolutely cannot access a specialized tool.
In this approach,
you pick any online tool that will allow you
to do some basic affinity mapping,
moving virtual stickies around.
Then, to do the quantitative analysis,
you can find tutorials online
to help you make those calculations
using your standard spreadsheet applications.
Next, just like in-person studies,
you recruit your target users.
Now, it's essential that they reflect your typical users,
the same knowledge level
and familiarity with your topics and your content
as people who would actually be using
your website or product.
So, you invite them to a virtual meeting,
where they can then share their screen,
and ideally, a camera,
so you can see their facial expressions as they're working,
and you direct them to your card sorting tool
where they can then begin the task.
Now, when I introduce the task,
similar to in-person, I'll explain to them,
"Okay, one by one, you're gonna take each of these items
"and just begin to organize them
"into groups that make sense to you.
"If you're not sure about what a card is or where to put it
"just leave that off to the side, create a separate area."
Then, I explain, "I'm gonna sit back
"and let you do the work on your own.
"I'll mute myself, but I'll still be able to hear you,
"so, if you have a question
"or you wanna just let me know when you're done,
"we'll talk afterwards.
Now, when the user's finished,
this is when you get to debrief,
you get to ask them questions, you know.
I'll often just start very open-ended,
and say, "Tell me about how you created these groups.
"Why did you decide to put some items together?
"Were there some items that seemed
"like they could belong in two places or more?"
Once you're finished with all of your questions,
you can thank the user
and tell them how they're gonna receive their incentive.
Typically, in a remote session,
this might be an online gift card.
Now, you might be thinking, "Wow, this all sounds great.
"Why would anybody do paper?"
Well, remote card sorting
does have one big drawback, or one risk,
which is that the usability of the tool
can impact the success of the session, right?
For users, sorting digitally is harder
than sorting paper cards.
And if you think about it,
wouldn't you rather deal out a deck of 52 cards
than drag and drop 52 items?
Some software, it doesn't work as well on certain devices
or it gets buggy in the browser or there's inline scrolling
that makes it hard for users to see
all of the groups that they've created digitally.
And all of this can mean
that users are more likely to get fatigued
in this digital environment.
And if that happens, they might end up sorting cards
just to be done with working in the interface.
And lastly, you might wonder,
"Well, can we do remote unmoderated card sorting
"where there's no facilitator?"
Sure, you can.
I recommend first you get that qualitative feedback
with those debriefs
so you can understand a little bit more
about why people are grouping things together,
and then, do some unmoderated sessions.
By adding those unmoderated sessions,
you can get faster feedback and a little bit more data,
just larger number of sessions run
without necessarily using the researcher time.
So, there you have it.
If you're thinking about remote card sorting,
it's not too different from traditional paper-based sorting.
Pick your terms, pick your tool and your typical users,
and you're on your way.