- Can be used very early in research process
- Can be used without information architecture
- Learn about the participants' vernacular
- More intuitive information architecture


Benefits of Open Card Sort

An open card sort is a type of card sorting activity in which participants are given the freedom to create as many topics and categories as they want and name them in a way that makes most sense to them. 

University of California, Berkeley

Ohio State University, Columbus

A Card Sort is used to understand how people think information within a website should be organized and named. It is often used to create or design an information architecture. 

- In a typical card sorting session, participants group the given topics into categories that make sense to them. 
- Users may also make changes to the cards you provided them by: removing a card they find unnecessary, creating a new card, renaming a card, changing the definition of a given card, and/or placing cards they feel belong that to multiple categories. 
- This can be carried out using sticky notes, paper cards, or a card sorting software.


Card Sorting in UX Research

Baxter, K., Courage, C., & Caine, K. (2015). Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Research Methods. Elsevier.

Understanding Your Users: A Practical Guide to User Research Methods

Open Card Sort

A closed card sort is a type of card sorting activity in which participants are to sort the given topics into a pre-defined set of categories. Closed card sorts are typically used when researchers are trying to improve an already existing information architecture.

Closed Card Sort

Some of the methods to analyze data from a card sorting activity includes: simple summary, factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, and path analysis. These methods will help us understand how similar items/topics are with each other in order to determine which items UX researchers should add or remove from a group so that it would be more useful for the users.

Data Analysis and Interpretation for Card Sorting

An information architecture is a combination of labeling content, organizing them into categories, and creating task processes in a way that is easy for the user to understand and accomplish their goal(s).

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