Card Sorting

A research method where participants group labeled cards into categories that make sense to them, revealing how people expect content to be organized.

Why it matters

Your navigation makes sense to you because you built it. Card sorting reveals the categories in your users’ heads instead — and the mismatches it surfaces are exactly the places people will get lost in the finished product.

The numbers

15-30 cards — enough signal without exhausting participants
Open sort — users name the groups; closed sort — you do

Related terms

Research
Diary Study
Interviews
Affinity Diagram
Containment

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Choosing the right Research method UX Research

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