7. User-Centred IA with Card Sorting

What's in it for me?

Users rely on the words and concepts we use in menus to understand what our product or service is about and how to achieve their goals - checking on their latest auction bid or getting a handle on their cash flow, for example. While it is certainly possible to invent information architectures without reference to users, card sorting is a powerful and easy-to-use method of researching terminology and categories. It can be done face-to-face with real cards or virtually, using a number of web sites available for the purpose.

In this session we'll be covering what you need to know to design and conduct card sorts using a variety of approaches, including our own tools and methods (some of which are free).

Topics covered

• Basics of card sorting
• Open versus closed sorts
• Face-to-face versus on-screen
• Terminology
• Avoiding common pitfalls with navigation
• How to make sense of the results

Who should attend

Most of the Guerrilla UCD webinars are intended for a broad audience:

• Software and web developers
• Webmasters
• Line and project managers
• Technical writers
• Usability, user experience and interaction design professionals

What's included

All Guerrilla UCD webinars are 90 minutes long and include audio/video recordings and a copy of the slides. Recordings will be available for download after the live session. All resources can be shared within your team.

If you are able to attend a live session, you will be able to ask questions using a chat facility. You can connect to the webinar over the internet, or in most countries use a local-dial phone number and follow the session using the slides. See About Guerrilla UCD for more details.

Special offers

This introductory webinar is half price. Consequently, none of our other special offers apply. See our special offers page for details of how to get free places on other sessions.

Related webinars

• 1. Guerrilla UCD Boot Camp
• 3. Navigation & Menu Design

Related reading

B = Background/theory, E = Essential, P = Practical
(see all GUCD-related books)

Instructor

William Hudson is a User Experience Strategist who consults, writes and teaches in the fields of user-centred design, user experience and usability. He has over 40 years' experience in the development of interactive systems, initially with a background in software engineering. William was the product and user interface designer for the Emmy-award-winning "boujou"; now an indispensable tool in major film studios. He has specialized in interaction design and human-computer interaction since the late 1980's. William has written and taught courses that have been presented to hundreds of software and web developers, designers and managers in the UK, North America and Europe. He is the founder and principal consultant of Syntagm, a consultancy specializing in the design of interactive systems established in 1985.

William has presented papers, talks and tutorials at international conferences including CHI, UPA and Nielsen Norman Group Usability Week. He is the author of over 30 articles and papers, including the Interaction Design Encyclopedia entry on card sorting.

William has worked with a wide variety of clients, from startups to established multi-nationals (click here to see our client list). He is an Adjunct Professor at Hult International Business School.