Card sorting is a technique that was originally used in libraries to organize large quantities of information. Card sorting uses physical cards with words (or pictures or physical objects). The cards are put on a big table and users are asked to group these cards into categories that make sense to them.
This technique allows to understand how users group information but is a wrong approach to organize information in a user interface because:
- When users interact with computers, the optimal information organization is not necessarily logical. Information can be organized along: 1) frequency /importance of use; 2) sequence of task 3) logical group; 4) standards (ex: month of the years), 5) numerical or alphabetical order.
- When doing card sorting, people are not in a natural work context. When people are performing tasks in natural work context, the information is deeply embedded in the context of the task, and the brain works in context.
- People may confuse items that belong to the same logical group but needs to be separated to prevent errors. For example, “flight schedule” and “flight status”.
Conclusion: Go out in the field. Do not to lose time with card sorting and instead uses techniques such as observation, prototypes and iterative tests with users.