Card sorting is a method used to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a website, intranet, DAM or other digital content repository. In a typical card sorting session, participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and group them accordingly. The card sort results can then inform how content should be organized.
A card sort can help an organization quickly—and affordably—yield valuable data to better understand its user’s expectations and understanding of topics. Knowing how users group information can help:
A team may choose to do an “open” or “closed” card sort depending on its needs. The techniques differ as follows:
An organization may also combine the two, first conducting an open card sort to identify content categories and then a closed card sort to see how well the category labels work.
Card sorts have the option of being conducted in person—one-on-one or in a group—using physical cards, pieces of paper, or online card-sorting software. Or, facilitators can use card-sorting software to work with participants remotely, in multiple locations.
Before making a purchase, today’s B2B customers typically conduct their own online research and educate themselves about a company’s products and services. That’s why it’s never been more important for enterprises to have a well-organized website.
Too often B2B marketers yield to the temptation to organize content the way their organization is structured, rather than the way their customers see them. This makes for a frustrating experience and lower engagement in what is otherwise great content.
In addition, many internal B2B knowledge repositories are sprawling, with large volumes of content. If this content is not organized with an understanding of users’ priority needs, tasks, and questions, then users can become quickly frustrated or overwhelmed. A card sort is a good first step to ensuring that content is well-organized and easy to find.
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