Syntagm > Design
for Usability > Card Sorting | Introduction
Introduction
Note that if you want someone to conduct IA or card-sort based research and design, visit our Information Architecture page. Read on about using and obtaining our tools yourself.
On this page:
Why card sorting?
Card sorting is a powerful technique for assessing how people group related concepts together. It can be much more effective than usability testing in determining how effective web site navigation is, but it also has applications in many other aspects of design and research.
However, card sorting has its drawbacks - many of which we have addressed in the approach and tools described here:
- Time-consuming to prepare
- Tedious data capture
- Traditional analyses confusing and limited
While preparation and data capture can be simplified by using screen-based sorting tools, our approach, called 'CAPS' (for Computer-Aided Paper Sorting) allows either screen-based or paper sorting with a wide range of options and much more extensive analyses that provides the kind of information you need to make good design or research decisions.
Our Approach
For screen-based sorting, you can choose from any web or desktop application that supports IBM's EZSort data format (Websort.net for example). However, some of the real benefits to card sorting come from a paper-based approach. Participants are less intimidated by paper and pens, plus they can provide much more in the way of qualitative data by making notes on the cards, changing item names, adding new items or groups and so on.
Here the steps for CAPS (Computer-Aided Paper Sorting):
- Prepare the cards using Microsoft Word (we provide free templates for this)
- Recruit participants and perform the sorts
- Capture data using a keyboard or bar code scanner (optional)
- Analyse the data using our SynCaps software and a spreadsheet package
To prepare the cards, you download our free Word template(s), supply the item names and other details and then laser-print the results. You then end up with four cards per sheet that look something like this:
(Shown actual size)
We supply perforated card for this purpose in the UK and EU, but there are other companies who provide similar products (see below). Notice that the cards include a 'quality of fit' measure. This allows participants to say how well an item fits within a group and significantly improves the quality of results.
The Word templates include bar codes that speed up data capture considerably (as well as improving accuracy). We supply a suitable bar code scanner in the UK and EU but you can contact us for information on suitable models elsewhere in the world or just enter the simple data format on a keyboard.
The full set of cards used are:
- Participant cards (one per participant)
- Group cards (unnamed for open sorts)
- Item cards (with item names, alternatives and descriptions - if needed)
Naturally, the bulk of the cards are item cards. Typically there will be between 30 and 70 of these per participant. Item and group cards can also be written out by hand during sorting.
We recommend around 20 participants for a paper card sort although there is no upper limit, particularly for online sorts where the cost per participant is low (see Jakob Nielsen's AlertBox article on the optimum number of participants).
Our SynCaps analysis software processes all of the card data and produces a combination of charts and spreadsheet files to allow a much better understanding of the results than can be obtained from most other approaches. Analyses include:
- Traditional dendrogram (see below)
- By participant (including measures showing how similar a participants' results are to the average or to a reference (called an 'expert' sort in the instructions)
- By item (including measures showing how consistently items were sorted)
- Proximity matrix - the raw data showing how often item pairs were grouped together
Also, for our new SynCaps V2 software (available later in 2008):
- Items x Group chart showing which group names were used most often
- Pairs map - a graphical presentation of the proximity matrix showing in great detail how items were grouped and also where differences occured with a reference ('expert) sort
Sample Analyses
Dendogram from SynCaps (plus signs show quality of fit)
Background colours, font, font size and number of groups are user adjustable. The dendrogram window contains a Windows Metafile image that can be copied and pasted (or dragged and dropped) into Microsoft Office applications such as Word and similar. It can be resized or printed without loss of quality.
In addition, since output is in a form suitable for Excel and other packages, there are many alternative analyses available such as the following examples:
The Ingredients
What you need:
-
Instructions. These are included with the SynCaps downloads, below. You do not have to buy Syncaps in order to try it or to read the instructions.
- A4 or US-letter perforated sheets are available from several sources. They should work in most printers, but you need to check this yourself.
UK - we sell these in boxes of 250 A4 sheets (1000 A6 cards)
Elsewhere - Avery 8387 (US-letter), Sigel LP 711 (A4) or similar
-
Microsoft Word documents for producing cards using mail merge. Available free for download (see below).
-
USB barcode scanner. Almost any scanner that emulates a keyboard (the technical term is a Human Interface Device or HID) and can read "Code 3 of 9" barcodes should suffice. If in doubt, download a template, print off a page and try it. For the UK and EU we sell a suitable scanner.
-
Our data preparation and analysis software, SynCaps. This can be tried free for 14 days and is fairly inexpensive. Download it to try and buy a license later if you want to keep using it (see below).
- Additional data analysis software. SynCaps provides a dendogram suitable for inclusion in reports. You can use Microsoft Excel to perform further analysis on the output files from SynCaps (the SPSS output includes a script to produce a basic dendogram). Any software that can read comma-separated-value (CSV) files can be used instead of Excel.
Downloads
Microsoft Word Documents
Note that for open card sorts, we suggest that you just use blank group cards. Participants will be instructed to write the group names on the blank cards.You will need to type these in as you are doing the data capture. For group cards, just type 'G' (case is not important) followed immediately by the name. For example 'GFruit & Veg' (omitting the quote marks).
To download the files, right-click the links and select "Save target as..." (or similar for browsers other than Internet Explorer). All of the files are stored in compressed zip file form.
A4 Downloads
- Participant cards - numbered (just print as many as you need)
- Group cards for closed card sorts (fixed groups - includes a mail
merge master and data file for group names)
- Item cards - includes a mail merge master and data file for item
names, descriptions and alternatives.
- Sub-group cards - used to split groups.
- (Download SynCaps for instructions on how to use the templates)
Right-click to download A4 documents in a zip file
(capsa4.zip, last modified
09-Apr-2008
, size
727K
)
US Letter (Quarto) Downloads
- Participant cards - numbered (just print as many as you need)
- Group cards for closed card sorts (fixed groups - includes a mail
merge master and data file for group names)
- Item cards - includes a mail merge master and data file for item
names, descriptions and alternatives.
- Sub-group cards - used to split groups.
- (Download SynCaps for instructions on how to use the templates)
Right-click to download US Letter documents
(capslt.zip, last modified
09-Apr-2008
, size
874K
)
SynCaps V1 Cluster Analysis Software
This software works on most versions of Windows and is available as a free trial for 14 days. It processes the the data file produced from barcode scanning, produces a dendogram and output files suitable for further analysis by Excel or similar packages (see sample analyses, above). Detailed instructions are included.
SynCaps V1 Download
Right-click to download SynCaps V1.3.7 for Windows
(syncapsv1.zip, last modified
09-Apr-2008
, size
424K
)
Don't forget that you will need one of the free Word mailmerge downloads (above) in order to computer-print the cards with bar codes.
SynCaps is free to try for 14 days. A single machine license costs
£40.00 GBP.
To purchase a license, first download and run the software to make sure that it meets your requirements. Then either select the "Buy now" button in the program's licensing window or copy and paste the serial number from the licensing window into the following field:
Please note that you do not need a different copy of the program itself. The license key allows the trial version to work beyond the initial 14 day period.
Shop
We can now supply the following items to both UK and EU customers:
- A4 perforated card (4 x A6 per sheet)
- USB bar code scanner
Please visit our shop to place an order.
A note to Mac (and Linux) users
Most of the tools mentioned above require Microsoft Windows 98 or later. However, it may possible to run the SynCaps software using an appropriate emulator on Mac or Linux machines. Note that Microsoft Word on the Mac does not recognize the bar codes used in our templates nor the USB bar code scanner.
Keywords: card sorting, information architecture, menu design, screen design, cluster analysis, caps, syncaps
